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THE CRITICAL PERIOD OF 

AMERICAN HISTORY 

1 783-1 789 



BY 



JOHN FISKE 

u 



I am uneasy and apprehensive, more so than during the war 
Jay to Washington, June 27, 1786. 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 



El ^03 



COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY JOHN FISKE 
COPYRIGHT, I916, BY ABBY M. FISKE 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REPRODUCE 
THIS BOOK OR PARTS THEREOF IN ANY FORM 






ii 



TO 

MY DEAR CLASSMATES 

FRANCIS LEE HIGGINSON 

AND 

CHARLES CABOT JACKSON 



r 



PREFACE 

THIS book contains the substance of the 
course of lectures given in the Old 
South Meeting-House in Boston in 
December, 1884, at the Washington University 
in St. Louis in May, 1885, and in the theatre 
of the University Club in New York in March, 
1886. In its present shape it may serve as a 
sketch of the political history of the United 
States from the end of the Revolutionary War 
to the adoption of the Federal Constitution. 
It makes no pretensions to completeness, either 
as a summary of the events of that period or as 
a discussion of the political questions involved 
in them. I have aimed especially at grouping 
facts in such a way as to bring out and em- 
phasize their causal sequence, and it is accord- 
ingly hoped that the book may prove useful to 
the student of American history. 

My title was suggested by the fact of Thomas 
Paine's stopping the publication of the " Crisis," 
on hearing the news of the treaty of 1783, with 
the remark, " The times that tried men's souls 
are over." Commenting upon this, on page 
vii 



PREFACE 

59 of the present work, I observed that so far 
from the crisis being over in 1783, the next five 
years were to be the most critical time of all. I 
had not then seen Mr. Trescot's " Diplomatic 
History of the Administrations of Washington 
and Adams," on page 9 of which he uses almost 
the same words: "It must not be supposed 
that the treaty of peace secured the national life. 
Indeed, it would be more correct to say that the 
most critical period of the country's history em- 
braced the time between 1783 and the adoption 
of the Constitution in 1788." 

That period was preeminently the turning- 
point in the development of political society in 
the western hemisphere. Though small in their 
mere dimensions, the events here summarized 
were in a remarkable degree germinal events, 
fraught with more tremendous alternatives of 
future welfare or misery for mankind than it is 
easy for the imagination to grasp. As we now 
stand upon the threshold of that mighty future, 
in the light of which all events of the past are 
clearly destined to seem dwindled in dimensions 
and significant only in the ratio of their potency 
as causes ; as we discern how large a part of 
that future must be the outcome of the creative 
work, for good or ill, of men of English speech ; 
we are put into the proper mood for estimating 
viii 



PREFACE 

the significance of the causes which determined 
a century ago that the continent of North Amer- 
ica should be dominated by a single powerful and 
pacific federal nation instead of being parcelled 
out among forty or fifty small communities, wast- 
ing their strength and lowering their moral tone 
by perpetual warfare, like the states of ancient 
Greece, or by perpetual preparation for warfare, 
like the nations of modern Europe. In my book 
entitled " American Political Ideas, viewed from 
the Standpoint of Universal History," I have 
tried to indicate the pacific influence likely to be 
exerted upon the world by the creation and 
maintenance of such a political structure as our 
Federal Union. The present narrative may 
serve as a commentary upon what I had in mind 
on page 133 of that book, in speaking of the 
work of our Federal Convention as " the finest 
specimen of constructive statesmanship that the 
world has ever seen." On such a point it is 
pleasant to find one's self in accord with a states- 
man so wise and noble as Mr. Gladstone, whose 
opinion is here quoted on page 264. 

To some persons it may seem as if the years 
1861-65 were of more cardinal importance than 
the years 1783-89. Our civil war was indeed 
an event of prodigious magnitude, as measured 
by any standard that history affords ; and there 

ix 



PREFACE 

can be little doubt as to Its decisiveness. The 
measure of that decisiveness is to be found in 
the completeness of the reconciliation that has 
already, despite the feeble wails of unscrupulous 
place-hunters and unteachable bigots, cemented 
the Federal Union so powerfully that all likeli- 
hood of its disruption may be said to have dis- 
appeared forever. When we consider this won- 
derful harmony which so soon has followed the 
deadly struggle, we may well believe it to be 
the index of such a stride toward the ultimate 
pacification of mankind as was never made before. 
But it was the work done in the years 1783-89 
that created a federal nation capable of endur- 
ing the storm and stress of the years 1861-65. 
It was in the earlier crisis that the pliant twig 
was bent ; and as it was bent, so has it grown ; 
until it has become indeed a goodly and a sturdy 
tree. 

Cambridge, October 10, 1888. 



NOTE 

The text of this edition was carefully revised 
by Mr. Fiske in October, 1897, and in some 
places important additions or changes were then 
made. 



CONTENTS 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

PAGE 

Fall of Lord North's ministry . . . . i 

Sympathy between British Whigs and the revolutionary 
party in America ...... 2 

It weakened the Whig party in England ... 3 
Character of Lord Shelburne .... 5 

Political instability of the Rockingham ministry . • 6, 7 

Obstacles in the way of a treaty of peace . . 9 

Oswald talks with Franklin . . . . ,11 

Grenville has an interview with Vergennes . . 14. 

Eifects of Rodney's victory . . . . .16 

Misunderstanding between Fox and Shelburne , 1 7 

Fall of the Rockingham ministry . . . .18 

Shelburne becomes prime minister . . . ig 

Defeat of the Spaniards and French at Gibraltar . . 20 

French policy opposed to American interests . . 21 

The valley of the Mississippi ; Aranda's prophecy . 22 
The Newfoundland fisheries . » . . 24. 

Jay detects the schemes of Vergennes . . '25 

And sends Dr. Vaughan to visit Shelburne . . 25, 26 

John Adams arrives in Paris and joins with Jay in insist- 
ing upon a separate negotiation with England . .27 
The separate American treaty, as agreed upon : 

1. Boundaries ...... 29 

2. Fisheries ; commercial intercourse . . "30 

3. Private debts . . . . , . 32 

xiii 



CONTENTS 

4. Compensation of loyalists . . . 33-38 

Secret article relating to the Yazoo boundary . . 39 

Vergennes does not like the way in which it has been done 39 

On the part of the Americans it was a great diplomatic 

victory ....... 40, 41 

Which the commissioners won by disregarding the instruc- 
tions of Congress and acting on their own responsi- 
bility ........ 42 

The Spanish treaty . . . . . .42 

The French treaty . . . . . . 43 

Coalition of Fox with North .... 44-49 

They attack the American treaty in Parliament . 50 

And compel Shelburne to resign . . . 50, 51 

Which leaves England without a government, while for 

several weeks the king is too angry to appoint ministers 52 
Until at length he succumbs to the coalition, which pre- 
sently adopts and ratifies the American treaty . 53 
The coalition ministry is wrecked upon Fox's India Bill 53, 54 
Constitutional crisis ends in the overwhelming victory of 

Pitt in the elections of May, 1784 . . -55 
And chis, although apparently a triumph for the king, w^as 
really a death-blow to his system of personal govern- 
ment 57» 58 



II 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

Cessation of hostilities in America . , . '59 

Departure of the British troops . . . .61 

Washington resigns his command . . . .62 

And goes home to Mount Vernon . . . 62 

His *' legacy " to the American people . . .64 

The next five years were the most critical years in Ameri- 
can history ....... 65 

xiv 



CONTENTS 

Absence of a sentiment of union, and consequent danger 
of anarchy ...... 65-67 

European statesmen, whether hostile or friendly, had lit- 
tle faith in the stability of the Union . . . 68, 69 
False historic analogies . . . . . .69 

Influence of railroad and telegraph upon the perpetuity of 
the Union . . . . . . . 71 

Difficulty of travelling a hundred years ago . -72 

Local jealousies and antipathies, an inheritance from pri- 
meval savagery . . . . . . 73 

Conservative character of the American Revolution . 75 
State governments remodelled; assemblies continued from 
colonial times ...... 76, ']'] 

Origin of the senates in the governor's council of assist- 
ants ........ 78 

Governors viewed with suspicion . . . . 79 

Analogies with British institudons . . . 80, 81 

The judiciary . . . . . . . 81 

Restricdons upon suffrage . . . . .82 

Abolition of primogeniture, entails, and manorial privileges 8 3 
Steps toward the abolidon of slavery and the slave-trade 84-89 
Progress toward religious freedom . . . 89-92 

Church and state in Virginia . . . . 93, 94 

Persecution of dissenters . . . . . 95 

Madison and the Religious Freedom Act . . .96 

Temporary overthrow of the church . . . 97 

Difficulties in regard to ordination ; the case of Mason 
Weems ....... 98, 99 

Ordination of Samuel Seabury by non-jurors at Aber- 
deen ....... 100, 10 1 

Francis Asbury and the Methodists . . . .102 

Presbyterians and Congregationalists . . .103 

Roman Catholics . . . . . 103, 104 

Except in the instance of slavery, all the changes described 
in this chapter were favourable to the union of the 
states . . . . . . , .105 

XV 



CONTENTS 

But while the state governments, in all these changes, are 
seen working smoothly, we have next to observe, by- 
contrast, the clumsiness and inefficiency of the federal 
government . . . . . . 105, io6 



III 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

The several states have never enjoyed complete sover- 
eignty . . . . . . . .108 

But in the very act of severing their connection with Great 

Britain, they entered into some sort of union 108, 109 
Anomalous character of the Continental Congress . iio 
The articles of confederation ; they sought to establish a 

** league of friendship " betw^een the states . 1 1 1— 1 1 5 

But failed to create a federal government endowed with 
real sovereignty ..... 115— 120 

Military weakness of the government . ', 120-122 

Extreme difficulty of obtaining a revenue . . 123, 124 

Congress, being unable to pay the army, was afraid 

of it ...... 125, 126 

Supposed scheme for making Washington king . .127 
Greene's experience in South Carolina . . .128 
Gates's staff officers and the Newburgh address . 129, 130 
The danger averted by Washington . . 130-132 
Congress driven from Philadelphia by mutinous sol- 
diers 133, 134 

The Commutation Act denounced in New England 134, 135 
Order of the Cincinnati . . . . 13 6- 140 

Reasons for the dread which it inspired . . 140, 141 

Congress finds itself unable to carry out the provisions of 

the treaty with Great Britain . . . .142 

Persecution of the loyalists . . . . 143, 144 

It was especially severe in New York . . 145, 146 

xvi 



CONTENTS 

Trespass Act of 1784 directed against the loyalists . 147 
Character and early career of Alexander Hamilton 147-150 
The case of Rutgers e/. Waddington . . 150-153 

Wholesale emigration of Tories . . . 153, 154 

Congress unabk to enforce payment of debts to British 

creditors . . . . . . .156 

England retaliates by refusing to surrender the fortresses 

on the northwestern frontier . . . 157, 158 



IV 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

The barbarous superstitions of the Middle Ages concern- 
ing trade were still rife in the eighteenth century . 159 

The old theory of the uses of a colony . . .160 

Pitt's unsuccessful attempt to secure free trade between 
Great Britain and the United States . . , 162 

Ship-building in New England . . . -163 

British navigation acts and orders in council directed 
against American commerce . . . .164 

John Adams tried in vain to negotiate a commercial 
treaty with Great Britain . . . . 165, 166 

And could see no escape from the difficulties except in 
systematic reprisal . . . . 166—168 

But any such reprisal w^as impracticable, for the several 
states imposed conflicdng dudes . . . 168, 169 

Attempts to give Congress the power of regulating com- 
merce were unsuccessful . . . 1 70, 1 7 1 

And the several states began to make commercial war 
upon one another . . . , . .172 

Attempts of New York to oppress New Jersey and Con- 
necticut . . . . . . .173 

Retaliatory measures of the two latter states . '174 

The quarrel between Connecticut and Pennsylvania over 
the possession of the valley of Wyoming . 175-178 

xvii 



CONTENTS 

The quarrel between New York and New Hampshire 

over the possession of the Green Mountains . 179-18 1 
Failure of American diplomacy because European states 
could not tell whether they were dealing with one 
nation or with thirteen . . . . 182—184 

Failure of American credit ; John Adams begging in 
Holland . . . . . . 184-186 

The Barbary pirates . . . . . 187-189 

American citizens kidnapped and sold into slavery . 190 

Lord Sheffield's outrageous pamphlet . . .190 

Tripoli's demand for blackmail . . . .192 

Congress unable to protect American citizens . . 192 

Financial distress after the Revolutionary War . 193-196 
State of the coinage ..... 196, 197 

Cost of the war in money . . , . .198 

Robert Morris and his immense services . 198, 199 

The craze for paper money ..... 200 

Agitation in the southern and middle states . 201—204 

Distress in New England ..... 204 

Imprisonment for debt . . . . .205 

Rag-money victorious in Rhode Island; the **Know 
Ye " measures ..... 206-209 

Rag-money defeated in Massachusetts ; the Shays insur- 
rection ...... 210-214 

The insurrection suppressed by state troops . 215, 216 

Conduct of the neighbouring states , . . 217 

The rebels pardoned . . . . .218, 219 

Timidity of Congress . . . . .220 



GERMS OF NATIOrtAL SOVEREIGNTY 

Creation of a national domain beyond the Allegha- 
nies . . . . . . .221, 222 

Conflicting claims to the western territory . 222, 223 
xviii 



CONTENTS 

Claims of Massachusetts and Connecticut . . .224 

Claims of New York . . . . .225 

Virginia's claims . . . . . . .225 

Maryland's novel and beneficent suggestion . 226, 227 
The several states yield their claims in favour of the 
United States ...... 228, 229 

Magnanimity of Virginia . . . . 230, 231 

Jefferson proposes a scheme of government for the north- 
western territory . . . . . -232 

Names of the proposed ten states . . . 234 

Jefferson wishes to prohibit slavery in the national do- 
main ........ 234 

North Carolina's cession of western land . . 236 

John Sevier and the state of Franklin . . 237, 238 

The northwestern territory . . . 239, 240 

Origin of the Ohio company .... 240—242 

The Ordinance of 1787 .... 242-244 

Theory of folk-land upon which the ordinance was 

based 244, 245 

Spain, hearing of the secret article in the treaty of 1783, 
loses her temper and threatens to shut up the Missis- 
sippi River ...... 246, 247 

Gardoqui and Jay . . . . .248, 249 

Threats of secession in Kentucky and New England 250 
Washington's views on the political importance of canals 
between east and west . . . . 251, 252 

His far-sighted genius and self-devotion . . -253 

Maryland confers with Virginia regarding the navigation 
of the Potomac . . . . . .253 

The Madison-Tyler motion in the Virginia legisla- 
ture 254, 255 

Convention at Annapohs, Sept. 11, 1786 . . 256 
Hamilton's address calling for a convention at Philadel- 
phia 257, 258 

The impost amendment defeated by the action of New 
York ; last ounce upon the camel's back . 2 5 9-26 1 

xix 



CONTENTS 

Sudden changes in popular sentiment . . . 262 

The Federal Convention meets at Philadelphia, May, 

^I'^l 263 

Mr. Gladstone's opinion of the work of the convention 264 
The men who were assembled there . . 264-267 

Character of James Madison . . . 268-270 

The other leading members . . . . .270 

Washington chosen president of the convention . 272 



VI 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

Why the proceedings of the convention were kept secret 
for so many years . . . . . '273 

Difficulty of the problem to be solved . . 274, 275 

Symptoms of cowardice repressed by Washington's im- 
passioned speech . . . . . 275 

The root of all the difficulties ; the edicts of the federal 
government had operated only upon states, not upon 
individuals, and therefore could not be enforced with- 
out danger of war .... 276-279 

The Virginia plan, of which Madison was the chief 
author, offered a radical cure . . . .280 

And was felt to be revolutionary in its character 281—283 
Fundamental features of the Virginia plan . . 284—286 

How it was at first received . . . . 287 

The House of Representatives must be directly elected 
by the people ...... 288, 289 

Question as to the representation of states brings out the 

antagonism between large and small states . 289, 290 
WiUiam Paterson presents the New Jersey plan ; not a 

radical cure, but a feeble palliative . . 290, 291 

Struggle between the Virginia and New Jersev plans 292-296 
The Connecticut compromise, according to which the 
XX 



CONTENTS 

national principle is to prevail in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, and the federal principle in the Senate, 
meets at first with fierce opposition . . 297, 298 
But is at length adopted ..... 299 
And proves a decisive victory for Madison and his meth- 
ods 300, 301 

A few irreconcilable members go home in dudgeon . 301 
But the small states, having been propitiated, are sud- 
denly converted to Federalism, and make the victory 
complete . . . . . . .302 

Vague dread of the future west . . . •303 

The struggle between pro-slavery and anti-slavery par- 
ties began in the convention, and was quieted by two 
compromises . . . . . .304 

Should representation be proportioned to wealth or to 
population ?....... 305 

Were slaves to be reckoned as persons or as chattels ? 306 
Attitude of the Virginia statesmen . . . 307 

It was absolutely necessary to satisfy South Carolina . 308 
The three fifths compromise, suggested by Madison, was 

a genuine English solution, if ever there was one . 309 
There was neither rhyme nor reason in it, but for all 

that, it was the best solution attainable at the time 309—3 1 1 
The next compromise was between New England and 
South Carolina as to the foreign slave-trade and the 
power of the federal government over commerce 311, 312 
George Mason calls the slave-trade an ** infernal traf- 
fic" 313 

And the compromise offends and alarms Virginia 313, 314 
Belief in the moribund condition of slavery . . 316 

The foundations of the Constitution were laid in com- 
promise . . . . . . . -3^7 

Powers granted to the federal government . . 318 

Use of federal troops in suppressing insurrections 318, 319 
Various federal powers ..... 320, 321 

Provision for a federal city under federal jurisdiction 321 
xxi 



CONTENTS 

The Federal Congress might compel the attendance of 
members . . . . . . .322 

Powers denied to the several states . . . '323 

Should the federal government be allowed to make its 
promissory notes a legal tender in payment of debts ? 
powerful speech of Gouverneur Morris . 323, 324 
Emphatic and unmistakable condemnation of paper money 

by all the leading delegates . . . 324, 325 

The convention refused to grant to the federal govern- 
ment the power of issuing inconvertible paper, but 
did not think an express prohibition necessary . 326 
If they could have foreseen some recent judgments of 
the supreme court, they would doubtless have made 
the prohibition explicit and absolute . . • 327 

Debates as to the federal executive . . 328, 329 

Sherman's suggestion as to the true relation of the execu- 
tive to the legislature . . . . '330 

There was to be a single chief magistrate, but how should 
he be chosen ? . . . . . '331 

Objections to an election by Congress . . •332 

Ellsworth and King suggest the device of an electoral 

college, which is at first rejected . . . 333 

But afterwards adopted . . . . '334 

Provisions for an election by Congress in the case of a 

failure of choice by the electoral college . 335> 337 
Provisions for counting the electoral votes . . -317 

It Vv^as not intended to leave anything to be decided by 
the president of the Senate . . . . 338 

The convention foresaw imaginary dangers, but not the 
real ones . , . . . . • 339 

Hamilton's opinion of the electoral scheme . . 340 

How it has actually worked . . . . 341, 342 

In this part of its work the convention tried to copy from 
the British Constitution . . . . -343 

In w^hich they supposed the legislative and executive 
departments to be distinct and separate . . '344 

xxii 



CONTENTS 

Here they were misled by Montesquieu and Blackstone 345 
What our government would be if it were really like that 

of Great Britain ..... 346-348 

In the British government the executive department is 

not separated from the legislative . . . 349, 350 

Circumstances which obscured the true aspect of the case 

a century ago ..... 35^-354 

Veto power and independence of the executive . 354-357 
The American cabinet is analogous, not to the British 

cabinet, but to the privy council . . . 358 

The federal judiciary, and its remarkable character 359-361 
Provisions for amending the Constitution . . -362 

The document is signed by all but three of the delegates 

present ...... 363-365 

And the convention breaks up .... 365 

With a pleasant remark from Franklin , . . 366 



VII 



CROWNING THE WORK 

Franklin lays the Constitution before the legislature of 
Pennsylvania . . . . . . .367 

It is submitted to Congress, which refers it to the legis- 
latures of the thirteen states, to be ratified or rejected 
by the people in conventions , . . .368 

First American parties. Federalists and Antifederalists . 370 
The contest in Pennsylvania , , . 37^—373 

How to make a quorum . . . . -373 

A war of pamphlets and newspaper squibs . 374—376 

Ending in the ratification of the Constitution by Dela- 
ware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey . . - 377 
Rejoicings and mutterings . . . . .378 

Georgia and Connecticut ratify . . , '379 

The outlook in Massachusetts . , . 379-3^2 

xxiii 



CONTENTS 

The Massachusetts convention meets . . .382 

And overhauls the Constitution clause by clause 383, 384 
On the subject of an army Mr. Nason waxes eloquent 385 
The clergymen oppose a religious test . . 385, 386 

And Rev. Samuel West argues on the assumption that all 

men are not totally depraved ■ . . . -387 

Feeling of distrust in the mountain districts . . 388 

Timely speech of a Berkshire farmer . . 389—392 

Attitude of Samuel Adams . . . . 391, 392 

Meeting of mechanics at the Green Dragon . '392 

Charges of bribery . . . . . -393 

Washington's fruitful suggestion . . . -394 

Massachusetts ratifies, but proposes amendments . 396 
The Long Lane has a turning and becomes Federal Street 396 
New Hampshire hesitates, but Maryland ratifies, and all 

eyes are turned upon South Carolina . . •397 

Objections of Rawlins Lowndes answered by Cotesworth 
Pinckney . . . . . . 398> 399 

South Carolina ratifies the Constitution . . . 400 

Important effect upon Virginia, where thoughts of a 

southern confederacy had been entertained . 401—403 

Madison and MarshaU prevail in the Virginia conven- 
tion, and it ratifies the Constitution . . . 404 
New Hampshire had ratified four days before . 405 
Rejoicings at Philadelphia; riots at Providence and Albany 406 
The struggle in New York . . . . 407, 408 

Origin of the ** Federalist " . . . 409-411 

Hamilton wins the victory, and New York ratifies . 412 
All serious anxiety is now at an end ; the laggard states. 

North Carolina and Rhode Island . . 413,414 

First presidendal election, January 7, 1789 ; Washing- 
ton is unanimously chosen . . . .415 

Why Samuel Adams was not selected for vice-president 416 
Selection of John Adams . . . . -417 

Washington's Journey to New York, April 16-23 417, 418 
His inauguration . . . . . 419* 420 

xxiv 



CONTENTS 

Bibliographical Note . . . . .421 

Members of the Federal Convention . c 430 

Presidents of the Continental Congress . . 434 

Index .435 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Alexander Hamilton (^photogravure') Frontispiece 

From the original painting by Trumbull in the New York 
Chamber of Commerce, by kind permission of Alexander E. Orr, 
Esq., its president. 

Boundaries of the United States, Canada, and the 
Spanish Possessions, according to the Proposals 
OF the Court of France in 1782 {^coloured map) . 24 
From Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice's Life of the Earl of Shel- 
burne. 

Thomas Jefferson (^photogravure) 222 

From an old copy, in the author's possession, of the original 
crayon portrait by St. Memin. Autograph from the Declaration 
of Independence. 

State OF Franklin, 1784-88 (^coloured map) . . . 234 
The author had never seen, nor found any one who had seen, 
a map of this short-lived state ; and, therefore, did the best he 
could, subject to correction. 

Spanish Claim in the Southwest (^coloured map) . .252 

Facsimile of Signatures to the Constitution . -364 

From a photograph of the original document, kindly lent by 
Andrew H. Allen, Esq., from the Bureau of Rolls, Department 
of S. ate, at Washington. 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD OF 
AMERICAN HISTORY 

I 

RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

THE 20th of March, 1782, the day 
which witnessed the fall of Lord 
North's ministry, was a day of good 
omen for men of English race on both sides 
of the Atlantic. Within two years from that 
date, the treaty which established the inde- 
pendence of the United States was success- 
fully negotiated at Paris ; and at the same 
time, as part of the series of events which re- 
sulted in the treaty, there went on in Eng- 
land a rapid dissolution and reorganization of 
parties, which ended in the overwhelming de- 
feat of the king's attempt to make the forms 
of the constitution subservient to his selfish 
purposes, and established the liberty of the 
people upon a broader and sounder basis than 
it had ever occupied before. Great indignation 
was expressed at the time, and has sometimes 
been echoed by British historians, over the 

I 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

conduct of those Whigs who never lost an 
opportunity of expressing their approval of 
Sympathy the American revolt. The Duke of 
hh wTi^"'" Richmond, at the beginning of the 
andtherevo- contcst, cxprcsscd a hopc that the 
partyX^ AmcHcans might succeed, because 
America ^j^gy ^ete in the right. Charles Fox 
spoke of General Howe*s first victory as "the 
terrible news from Long Island." Wraxall says 
that the celebrated buff and blue colours of 
the Whig party were adopted by Fox in im- 
itation of the Continental uniform ; but his 
unsupported statement is open to question. It 
is certain, however, that in the House of Com- 
mons the Whigs habitually alluded to Wash- 
ington's army as " our army," and to the 
American cause as " the cause of liberty ;" and 
Burke, with characteristic vehemence, declared 
that he would rather be a prisoner in the Tower 
with Mr. Laurens than enjoy the blessings of 
freedom in company with the men who were 
seeking to enslave America. Still more, the 
Whigs did all in their power to discourage 
enlistments, and in various ways so thwarted 
and vexed the government that the success of 
the Americans was by many people ascribed 
to their assistance. A few days before Lord 
North's resignation, George Onslow, in an 
able defence of the prime minister, exclaimed, 
^ Why have we failed so miserably in this war 

2 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

against AmerLa, if not from the support and 
countenance given to rebellion in this very 
House?'' 

Now the violence of party leaders like Burke 
and Fox owed much of its strength, no doubt, 
to mere rancorousness of party spirit. But, after 
making due allowance for this, we must admit 
that it was essentially based upon the intensity 
of their conviction that the cause of English 
Hberty was inseparably bound up with the de- 
feat of the king's attempt upon the liberties of 
America. Looking beyond the quarrels of the 
moment, they preferred to have freedom guar- 
anteed, even at the cost of temporary defeat 
and partial loss of empire. Time has shown 
that they were right in this, but the majority 
of the people could hardly be expected to com- 
prehend their attitude. It seemed to many that 
the great Whig leaders were forgetting their 
true character as English statesmen, ^ , ^ 

. o 'It weakened 

and there is no doubt that for many the whigs 
years this was the chief source of the '" "^^" 
weakness of the Whig party. Sir Gilbert Elliot 
said, with truth, that if the Whigs had not thus 
to a considerable extent arrayed the national 
feeling against themselves, Lord North's min- 
istry would have fallen some years sooner than 
it did. The king thoroughly understood the 
advantage which accrued to him from this state 
of things ; and with that short-sighted shrewd- 

3 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

ness of the mere political wire-puller, In which 
few modern politicians have excelled him, he 
had from the outset preferred to fight his 
battle on constitutional questions in America 
rather than in England, in order that the 
national feeling of Englishmen might be ar- 
rayed on his side. He was at length thor- 
oughly beaten on his own ground, and as the 
fatal day approached he raved and stormed as 
he had not stormed since the spring of 1778, 
when he had been asked to entrust the govern- 
ment to Lord Chatham. Like the child who 
refuses to play when he sees the game going 
against him, George threatened to abdicate the 
throne and go over to Hanover, leaving his 
son to get along with the Whig statesmen. But 
presently he took heart again, and began to re- 
sort to the same kind of political management 
which had served him so well in the earlier 
years of his reign. Among the Whig states- 
men, the Marquis of Rockingham had the 
largest political following. He represented the 
old Whig aristocracy, his section of the party 
had been first to urge the recognition of Amer- 
ican independence, and his principal followers 
were Fox and Burke. For all these reasons 
he was especially obnoxious to the king. On 
the other hand, the Earl of Shelburne was, in 
a certain sense, the political heir of Lord Chat- 
ham, and represented principles far more lib- 

4 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

eral than those of the Old Whigs. Shelburne 
was one of the most enlightened statesmen 
of his time. He was an earnest ad- (.^gracter 
vocate of parliamentary reform and of Lord 

r r J T T 1 J 'J "1 Shelburne 

or tree trade. He had paid especial 
attention to political economy, and looked 
with disgust upon the whole barbaric system 
of discriminative duties and commercial mo- 
nopolies which had been so largely instru- 
mental in bringing about the American Revo- 
lution. But being in these respects in advance 
of his age, Lord Shelburne had but few fol- 
lowers. Moreover, although a man of un- 
doubted integrity, quite exempt from sordid 
or selfish ambition, there was a cynical harsh- 
ness about him which made him generally dis- 
liked and distrusted. He was so suspicious of 
other men that other men were suspicious of 
him ; so that, in spite of many admirable qual- 
ities, he was extremely ill adapted for the work 
of a party manager. 

It was doubtless for these reasons that the 
king, when it became clear that a new gov^ern- 
ment must be formed, made up his mind that 
Lord Shelburne would be the safest man to 
conduct it. In his hands the Whig power 
would not be likely to grow too strong, and 
dissensions would be sure to arise, from which 
the king might hope to profit. The first place 
in the treasury was accordingly offered to Shel- 

5 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

burne ; and when he refused it> and the king 
found himself forced to appeal to Lord Rock- 
ingham, the manner in which the bitter pill was 
taken was quite characteristic of George III. 
He refused to meet Rockingham in person, 
but sent all his communications to him through 
Shelburne, who, thus conspicuously singled out 
as the object of royal preference, was certain to 
incur the distrust of his fellow ministers. 

The structure of the new cabinet was unsta- 
ble enough, however, to have satisfied even 
such an enemy as the king. Beside Rocking- 
ham himself. Lord John Cavendish, Charles 
Fox, Lord Keppel, and the Duke of Richmond 
were all Old Whigs. To offset these five there 
were five New Whigs, the Duke of Grafton, 
Lords Shelburne, Camden, and Ashburton^ 
and General Conway ; while the eleventh mem- 
ber was none other than the Tory chancellor, 
Lord Thurlow, who was kept over from Lord 
North's ministry. Burke was made paymaster 
of the forces, but had no seat in the cabinet. In 
this curiously constructed cabinet, the prime 
Political in- minister, Lord Rockingham, counted 
rSkL for but little. Though a good party 
ham ministry leader, hc was below mediocrity as a 
statesman, and his health was failing, so that 
he could not attend to business. The master 
spirits were the two secretaries of state. Fox and 
Shelburne, and they wrangled perpetually, while 

6 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

Thurlow carried the news of all their quarrels 
to the king, and in cabinet meetings usually 
voted with Shelburne. The ministry had not 
lasted five weeks when Fox began to predict 
its downfall. On the great question of parlia- 
mentary reform, which was brought up in May 
by the young William Pitt, the government 
was hopelessly divided. Shelburne's party was 
in favour of reform, and this time Fox was 
found upon the same side, as well as the Duke 
of Richmond, who went so far as to advocate 
universal suffrage. On the other hand, the 
Whig aristocracy, led by Rockingham, were as 
bitterly opposed as the king himself to any 
change in the method of electing parliaments ; 
and, incredible as it may seem, even such a 
man as Burke maintained that the old system, 
rotten boroughs and all, was a sacred part of 
the British Constitution, which none could 
handle rudely without endangering the coun- 
try ! But in this moment of reaction against 
the evil influences which had brought about 
the loss of the American colonies, there was a 
strong feeling in favour of reform, and Pitt's 
motion was only lost by a minority of twenty 
in a total vote of three hundred. Haifa cen- 
tury was to elapse before the reformers were 
again to come so near to victory. 

But Lord Rockingham's weak and short- 
lived ministry was nevertheless remarkable for 

7 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

the amount of good work it did in spite of the 
king's dogged opposition. It contained great 
administrative talent, which made itself felt in 
the most adverse circumstances. To add to the 
difficulty, the ministry came into office at the 
critical moment of a great agitation in Ireland. 
In less than three months, not only was the 
trouble successfully removed, but the impor- 
tant bills for disfranchising revenue officers and 
excluding contractors from the House of Com- 
mons were carried, and a tremendous blow was 
thus struck at the corrupt influence of the crown 
upon elections. Burke's great scheme of eco- 
nomical reform was also put into operation, 
cutting down the pension list and diminishing 
the secret service fund, and thus destroying 
many sources of corruption. At no time per- 
haps, since the expulsion of the Stuarts, had 
so much been done toward purifying English 
political life as during the spring of 178a. But 
during the progress of these important mea- 
sures, the jealousies and bickerings in the cabi- 
net became more and more painfully apparent, 
and as the question of peace with America 
came into the foreground, these difficulties 
hastened to a crisis. 

From the policy which George III. pursued 
with regard to Lord Shelburne at this time, one 
would suppose that in his secret heart the king 
wished, by foul means since all others had 

8 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

failed, to defeat the negotiations for peace and 
to prolong the war. Seldom has there been 
a more oddly complicated situation, obstacles in 
Peace was to be made with America, Jl'eaty 7f ""^ ^ 
France, Spain, and Holland. Of these p^^ce 
powers, America and France were leagued to- 
gether by one treaty of alliance, and France and 
Spain by another, and these treaties in some 
respects conflicted with one another in the du- 
ties which they entailed upon the combatants. 
Spain, though at war with England for purposes 
of her own, was bitterly hostile to the United 
States ; and France, thus leagued with two 
allies which pulled in opposite directions, felt 
bound to satisfy both, while pursuing her own 
ends against England. To deal with such a 
chaotic state of things, an orderly and harmo- 
nious government in England should have 
seemed indispensably necessary. Yet on the 
part of England the negotiation of a treaty of 
peace was to be the work of two secretaries of 
state who were both politically and personally 
hostile to each other. Fox, as secretary of state 
for foreign affairs, had to superintend the ne- 
gotiations with France, Spain, and Holland. 
Shelburne was secretary of state for home and 
colonial affairs ; and as the United States were 
still officially regarded as colonies, the American 
negotiations belonged to his department. With 
such a complication of conflicting interests, 

9 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

George III. might well hope that no treaty 
could be made. 

The views of Fox and Shelburne as to the 
best method of conceding American independ- 
ence were very different. Fox understood that 
France was really in need of peace, and he be- 
lieved that she would not make further demands 
upon England if American independence should 
once be recognized. Accordingly, Fox would 
have made this concession at once as a prelimi- 
nary to the negotiation. On the other hand, 
Shelburne felt sure that France would insist 
upon further concessions, and he thought it 
best to hold in reserve the recognition of inde- 
pendence as a consideration to be bargained for. 
Informal negotiations began between Shelburne 
and Franklin, who for many years had been 
warm friends. In view of the impending change 
of government, Franklin had in March sent a 
letter to Shelburne, expressing a hope that peace 
might soon be restored. When the letter 
reached London the new ministry had already 
been formed, and Shelburne, with the consent 
of the cabinet, answered it by sending over to 
Paris an agent, to talk with Franklin infor- 
mally, and ascertain the terms upon which the 
Americans would make peace. The person 
chosen for this purpose was Richard Oswald, a 
Scotch merchant, who owned large estates in 
America, — a man of very frank disposition and 

lO 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

liberal views, and a friend of Adam Smith. In 
April, Oswald had several conversations with 
Franklin. In one of these conversa- oswaid 
tions Franklin suggested that, in order talks with 

, 1 1 7 • 1 • Franklin 

to make a durable peace, it was desir- 
able to remove all occasion for future quarrel ; 
that the line of frontier between New York and 
Canada was inhabited by a lawless set of men, 
who in time of peace would be likely to breed 
trouble between their respective governments ; 
and that therefore it would be well for England 
to cede Canada to the United States. A simi- 
lar reasoning would apply to Nova Scotia. By 
ceding these countries to the United States it 
would be possible, from the sale of unappro- 
priated lands, to indemnify the Americans for 
all losses of private property during the war, 
and also to make reparation to the Tories, whose 
estates had been confiscated. By pursuing such 
a policy, England, which had made war on 
America unjustly, and had wantonly done it 
great injuries, would achieve not merely peace, 
but reconciliation, with America ; and recon- 
ciliation, said Franklin, is " a sweet word." No 
doubt this was a bold tone for Franklin to take, 
and perhaps it was rather cool in him to ask 
for Canada and Nova Scotia ; but he knew that 
almost every member of the Whig ministry had 
publicly expressed the opinion that the war 
against America was an unjust and wanton war; 

II 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

and being, moreover, a shrewd hand at a bar- 
gain, he began by setting his terms high. Oswald 
doubtless looked at the matter very much from 
Franklin's point of view, for on the suggestion 
\ of the cession of Canada he expressed neither 
surprise nor reluctance. Franklin had writ- 
ten on a sheet of paper the main points of his 
conversation, and, at Oswald's request, he al- 
lowed him to take the paper to London to show 
to Lord Shelburne — first writing upon it a 
note expressly declaring its informal character. 
Franklin also sent a letter to Shelburne, de- 
scribing Oswald as a gentleman with whom he 
found it very pleasant to deal. On Oswald's 
arrival in London, Shelburne did not show the 
notes of the conversation to any of his colleagues, 
except Lord Ashburton. He kept the paper 
over one night, and then returned it to Franklin 
without any formal answer. But the letter he 
showed to the cabinet, and on the 23d of April 
it was decided to send Oswald back to Paris, to 
represent to Franklin that, on being restored to 
the same situation in which she was left by the 
treaty of 1763, Great Britain would be willing 
to recognize the independence of the United 
States. Fox was authorized to make a similar 
representation to the French government, and 
the person whom he sent to Paris for this pur- 
pose was Thomas Grenville, son of the author 
of the Stamp Act. 

12 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

As all British subjects were prohibited from 
entering into negotiations with the revolted 
colonies, it was impossible for Oswald to take 
any decisive step until an enabling act should 
be carried through Parliament. But while wait- 
ing for this he might still talk informally with 
Franklin. Fox thought that Oswald's presence 
in Paris indicated a desire on Shelburne's part 
to interfere with the negotiations with the French 
government ; and indeed, the king, out of his 
hatred of Fox and his inborn love of intrigue, 
suggested to Shelburne that Oswald " might be 
a useful check on that part of the negotiation 
which was in other hands." But Shelburne paid 
no heed to this crooked advice, and there is 
nothing to show that he had the least desire to 
intrigue against Fox. If he had, he would cer- 
tainly have selected some other agent than 
Oswald, who was the most straightforward of 
men, and scarcely close-mouthed enough for 
a diplomatist. He told Oswald to impress it 
upon Franklin that if America was to be in- 
dependent at all she must be independent of 
the whole world, and must not enter into any 
secret arrangement with France which might 
limit her entire freedom of action in the future. 
To the private memorandum which desired the 
cession of Canada for three reasons, his answers 
were as follows : " i. By way of reparation, — 
Answer. No reparation can be heard of. 2. 

13 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

To prevent future wars. — Answer. It is to be 
hoped that some more friendly method will be 
found. 3. As a fund of indemnification to loyalists, 
— Answer. No independence to be acknow- 
ledged without their being taken care of." Be- 
sides, added Shelburne, the Americans would 
be expected to make some compensation for 
the surrender of Charleston, Savannah, and the 
city of New York, still held by British troops. 
From this it appears that Shelburne, as well as 
Franklin, knew how to begin by asking more 
jhan he was likely to get. 

While Oswald submitted these answers to 
Franklin, Grenville had his interview with Ver- 
gennes, and told him that, if England recognized 
Grenville has the independence of the United States, 
w"th v'r!'' she should expect France to restore 
gennes the isknds of the West Indies which 

she had taken from England. Why not, since 
the independence of the United States was the 
sole avowed object for which France had gone 
to war? Now this was on the 8th of May, and 
the news of the destruction of the French fleet 
in the West Indies, nearly four weeks ago, had 
not yet reached Europe. Flushed with the 
victories of Grasse, and exulting in the prowess 
of the most formidable naval force that France 
had ever sent out, Vergennes not only expected 
to keep the islands which he had got, but was 
waiting eagerly for the news that he had acquired 

14 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

Jamaica besides. In this mood he returned a 
haughty answer to Grenville. He reminded 
him that nations often went to war for a specified 
object, and yet seized twice as much if favoured 
by fortune ; and, recurring to the instance which 
rankled most deeply in the memories of French- 
men, he cited the events of the last war. In 
1756 England went to war with France over 
the disputed right to some lands on the Ohio 
River and the Maine frontier. After seven 
years of lighting she not only kept these lands, 
but all of Canada, Louisiana, and Florida, and 
ousted the French from India into the bargain. 
No, said Vergennes, he would not rest content 
with the independence of America. He would 
not even regard such an offer as a concession to 
France in any way, or as a price in return for 
which France was to make a treaty favourable 
to England. As regards the recognition of 
independence, England must treat directly with 
America. 

Grenville was disappointed and chagrined by 
this answer, and the ministry made up their 
minds that there would be no use in trying to 
get an honourable peace with France for the 
present. Accordingly, it seemed better to take 
Vergennes at his word, though not in the sense 
in which he meant it, and, by granting all that 
the Americans could reasonably desire, to detach 
them from the French alliance as soon as possi-* 

IS 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

ble. On the 1 8th of May there came the news of 

the stupendous victory of Rodney over Grasse, 

and all England rang with jubilee. 

Effects cf . . , ° , , ° 1 r> • 

Rodney's Again it had been shown that " Bri- 
victory tannia rules the wave ; " and it seemed 

that, if America could be separately pacified, the 
House of Bourbon might be successfully defied. 
Accordingly, on the 23d, five days after the news 
of victory, the ministry decided "to propose the 
independence of America in the first instance, 
instead of making it the condition of a general 
treaty." Upon this Fox rather hastily main- 
tained that the United States were put at once 
into the position of an independent and foreign 
power, so that the business of negotiating with 
them passed from Shelburne's department into 
his own. Shelburne, on the other hand, argued 
that, as the recognition of independence could 
not take efl^ect until a treaty of peace should be 
concluded, the negotiation with America still 
belonged to him, as secretary for the colonies. 
Following Fox's instructions, Grenville now 
claimed the right of negotiating with Franklin 
as well as with Vergennes ; but as his written 
credentials only authorized him to treat with 
France, the French minister suspected foul plav, 
and turned a cold shoulder to Grenville. For 
the same reason, Grenville found Franklin very 
reserved and indisposed to talk on the subject 
of the treaty. While Grenville was thus rebuffed 

16 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

and irritated he had a talk with Oswald, in the 
course of which he got from that simple and 
high-minded gentleman the story of the private 
paper relating to the cession of Canada, which 
Franklin had permitted Lord Shelburne to see. 
Grenville immediately took offence ; he made 
up his mind that something underhanded was 
going on, and that this was the reason for the 
coldness of Franklin and Vergennes ; and he 
wrote an indignant letter about it to Fox. From 
the wording of this letter, Fox got the impres- 
sion that Franklin's proposal was much more 
serious than it really was. It naturally puzzled 
him and made him angry, for the attitude of 
America implied in the request for a cession 
of Canada was far different from the attitude 
presumed by the theory that the mere offer of 
independence would be enough to detach her 
from her alliance with France. The plan of the 
ministry seemed imperilled. Fox showed Gren- 
ville's letter to Rockingham, Richmond, and 
Cavendish ; and they all inferred that Shelburne 
was playing a secret part, for purposes of his 
own. This was doubtless unjust to Shelburne. 
Perhaps his keeping the matter to himself was 
simply one more illustration of his want of con- 
fidence in Fox ; or, perhaps he did not think it 
worth while to stir up the cabinet over a question 
which seemed too preposterous ever to come to 
anything. Fox, however, cried out against Shel- 

17 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

burners alleged duplicity, and made up his mind 
at all events to get the American negotiations 
transferred to his own department. To this end 
he moved in the cabinet, on the last day of June, 
that the independence of the United States 
Fall of the should bc Unconditionally acknow- 
m°n'^ryf '" Icdgcd, SO that England might treat 
July I, 1782 as with a foreign power. The motioj:!^ 
was lost, and Fox announced that he shoujd^ 
resign his office. His resignation would prob- 
ably of itself have broken up the ministry, but, 
by a curious coincidence, on the next day Lord 
Rockingham died ; and so the first British gov- 
ernment begotten of Washington's victory at 
Yorktown came prematurely to an end. 

The Old Whigs now found some difficulty in 
choosing a leader. Burke was the greatest states- 
man in the party, but he had not the qualities 
of a party leader, and his connections were not 
sufficiently aristocratic. Fox was distrusted by 
many people for his gross vices, and because of 
his waywardness in politics. In the dissipated 
gambler, who cast in his lot first with one party 
and then with the other, and who had shame- 
fully used his matchless eloquence in defending 
some of the worst abuses of the time, there 
seemed as yet but little promise of the great 
reformer of later years, the Charles Fox who 
came to be loved and idolized by all enlightened 
Englishmen. Next to Fox, the ablest leader in 
18 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

the party was the Duke of Richmond, but his 
advanced views on parliamentary reform put him 
out of sympathy with the majority of the party. 
In this embarrassment, the choice fell upon the 
Duke of Portland, a man of great wealth and 
small talent, concerning whom Horace Walpole 
observed, " It is very entertaining that two or 
three great families should persuade themselves 
that they have a hereditary and exclusive right 
of giving us a head without a tongue ! " The 
choice was a weak one, and played directly into 
the hands of the king. When urged to make 
the Duke of Portland his prime minister, the 
king replied that he had already offered that 
position to Lord Shelburne. Here- 
upon Fox and Cavendish resigned, but prime min- 
Richmond remained in office, thus ^^^^^ 
virtually breaking his connection with the Old 
Whigs. Lord Keppel also remained. Many 
members of the party followed Richmond and 
went over to Shelburne. William Pitt, now 
twenty-three years old, succeeded Cavendish as 
chancellor of the exchequer ; Thomas Town- 
shend became secretary of state for home and 
colonies, and Lord Grantham became foreign 
secretary. The closing days of Parliament were 
marked by altercations which showed how wide 
the breach had grown between the two sections 
of the Whiq^ party. Fox and Burke believed 
that Shelburne was not only playing a false part, 

19 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

but was really as subservient to the king as Lord 
North had been. In a speech ridiculous for 
its furious invective, Burke compared the new 
prime minister with Borgia and Catiline. And 
so Parliament was adjourned on the nth of 
July, and did not meet again until December. 
The task of making a treaty of peace was 
simplified both by this change of ministry and 
by the total defeat of the Spaniards and French 
at Gibraltar in September. Six months before, 
England had seemed worsted in every quarter. 
Now England, though defeated in America, 
was victorious as regarded France and Spain. 
The avowed object for which France had en- 
tered into alliance with the Americans was to 
secure the independence of the United States, 
and this point was now substantially gained. 
The chief object for which Spain had entered 
into alliance with France was to drive the Eng- 
lish from Gibraltar, and this point was now de- 
cidedly lost. France had bound herself not to 
desist from the war until Spain should recover 
Gibraltar ; but now there was little hope of 
accomplishing this, except by some fortunate 
bargain in the treaty, and Vergennes tried to 
persuade England to cede the great stronghold 
in exchange for West Florida, which Spain had 
lately conquered, or for Oran or Guadaloupe. 
Failing in this, he adopted a plan for satisfying 
Spain at the expense of the United States ; and 
20 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

he did this the more willingly as he had no love 
for the Americans, and did not wish to see 
them become too powerful. France French poHcy 
had strictly kept her pledges ; she had American 
given us valuable and timely aid in interests 
gaining our independence ; and the sympa- 
thies of the French people were entirely with 
the American cause. But the object of the 
French government had been simply to humil- 
iate England, and this end was sufficiently 
accomplished by depriving her of her thirteen 
colonies. 

The immense territory extending from the 
Alleghany Mountains to the Mississippi River, 
and from the border of West Florida to the 
Great Lakes, had passed from the hands of 
France into those of England at the peace of 
1763 ; and by the Quebec Act of 1774 Eng- 
land had declared the southern boundary of 
Canada to be the Ohio River. At present the 
whole territory, from Lake Superior down to 
the southern boundary of what is now Ken- 
tucky, belonged to the state of Virginia, whose 
backwoodsmen had conquered it from England 
in 1779. In December, 1780, Virginia had 
provisionally ceded the portion north of the 
Ohio to the United States, but the cession was 
not yet completed. The region which is now 
Tennessee belonged to North Carolina, which 
had begun to make settlements there as long 

21 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

ago as 1758. The trackless forests included be- 
tween Tennessee and West Florida were still 
in the hands of wild tribes of Cherokees and 
Choctaws, Chickasaws and Creeks. Several 
thousand pioneers from North Carolina and 
The vaUey Virginia had already settled beyond 
of the the mountains, and the white popu- 

Mississippi; -ii • • T-L- 

Aranda's lation was rapidly increasing. 1 his 
prophecy tcrHtory the French government was 
very unwilling to leave in American hands. The 
possibility of enormous expansion which it 
would afford to the new nation was distinctly 
foreseen by sagacious men. Count Aranda, the 
representative of Spain in these negotiations, 
wrote a letter to his king just after the treaty 
was concluded, in which he uttered this notable 
prophecy : " This federal republic is born a 
pygmy. A day will come when it will be a 
giant, even a colossus, formidable in these coun- 
tries. Liberty of conscience, the facility for es- 
tablishing a new population on immense lands, 
as well as the advantages of the new govern- 
ment, will draw thither farmers and artisans 
from all the nations. In a few years we shall 
watch with grief the tyrannical existence of this 
same colossus." The letter went on to predict 
that the Americans would presently get posses- 
sion of Florida and attack Mexico. Similar ar- 
guments were doubtless used by Aranda in his 
interviews with Vergennes, and France, as well 
11 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

as Spain, sought to prevent the growth of the 
dreaded colossus. To this end Vergennes main- 
tained that the Americans ought to recognize 
the Quebec Act and give up to England all the 
territory north of the Ohio River. The region 
south of this limit should, he thought, be made 
an Indian territory, and placed under the pro- 
tection of Spain and the United States. A line 
was to be drawn from the mouth of the Cum- 
berland River, following that stream about as far 
as the site of Nashville, thence running south- 
ward to the Tennessee, thence curving east- 
ward nearly to the Alleghanies, and descending 
through what is now eastern Alabama to the 
Florida line. The territory to the east of this 
irregular line was to be under the protection of 
the United States ; the territory to the west of 
it was to be under the protection of Spain. In 
this division, the settlers beyond the mountains 
would retain their connection with the United 
States, which would not touch the Mississippi 
River at any point. Vergennes held that this 
was all the Americans could reasonably demand, 
and he agreed with Aranda that they had as 
yet gained no foothold upon the eastern bank 
of the great river, unmindful of the fact that 
at that very moment the fortresses at Caho- 
kia and Kaskaskia were occupied by Virginian 
garrisons. 

Upon another important point the views of 
23 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

the French government were directly opposed 
to American interests. The right to catch fish 
^, ^T on the banks of Newfoundland had 

The New- - _ ^ - — 

foundiand bccn sharcd by treaty between France 
and England ; and the New England 
fishermen, as subjects of the king of Great Brit- 
ain, had participated in this privilege. The mat- 
ter was of very great importance, not only to 
New England, but to the United States in 
general. Not only were the fisheries a source 
of lucrative trade to the New England people, 
but they were the training-school of a splendid 
race of seamen, the nursery of naval heroes 
whose exploits were by and by to astonish the 
world. To deprive the Americans of their 
share in these fisheries was to strike a serious 
blow at the strength and resources of the new 
nation. The British government was not in-- 
clined to grant the privilege, and on this point 
Vergennes took sides with England, in order 
to establish a claim upon her for concessions 
advantageous to France in some other quarter. 
With these views, Vergennes secretly aimed at 
delaying the negotiations ; for as long as hos- 
tilities were kept up, he might hope to extort 
from his American allies a recognition of the 
Spanish claims and a renouncement of the fish- 
eries, simply by threatening to send them no 
further assistance in men or money. In order 
to retard the proceedings, he refused to take any 
24 




MAP OF NORTH AMERICA, 

Showing the Boundaries of the UNITED STATES, CANADA, and the SPANISH POSSES- 
SIONS, according to the proposals of the Court of France in I 782. 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

steps whatever until the independence of the 
United States should first be irrevocably ac- 
knowledged by Great Britain, without reference 
to the final settlement of the rest of the treaty. 
In this Vergennes was supported by Franklin, 
as well as by Jay, who had lately arrived in 
Paris to take part in the negotiations. But the 
reasons of the American commissioners were 
very different from those of Vergennes. They 
feared that, if they began to treat before inde- 
pendence was acknowledged, they would be 
unfairly dealt with by France and Spain, and 
unable to gain from England the concessions 
upon which they were determined. 

Jay soon began to suspect the designs of the 
French minister. He found that he was send- 
ing M.,^_de_Rayiiei:al as a secret emissary to 
Lord Shelburne under an assumed name ; he 
ascertained that the right of the United States* 
to the Mississippi valley was to be denied ; and 
he got hold of a dispatch from Marbois, the 
French secretary of legation at Philadelphia, to 
Vergennes, opposino; the American 
claim to the Newfoundland fisheries, the schemes 
As soon as Jay learned these facts, he «f ^'^-g-"^^ 
sent his friend Dr. Benjamin Vaughan to Lord 
Shelburne to put him on his guard, and while 
reminding him that it was greatly for the inter- 
est of England to dissolve the alliance between 
America and France, he declared himself ready 

25 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

to begin the negotiations without waiting for 
the recognition of independence, provided that 
Oswald's commission should speak of the thir- 
teen United States of America, instead of call- 
ing them colonies and naming them separately. 
This decisive step was taken by Jay on his own 
responsibility, and without the knowledge of 
Franklin, who had been averse to anything like 
a separate negotiation with England. It served 
to set the ball rolling at once. After meeting 
the messengers from Jay and Vergennes, Lord 
Shelburne at once perceived the antagonism 
that had arisen between the allies, and promptly 
took advantage of it. A new commission was 
made out for Oswald, in which the British gov- 
ernment first described our country as " the 
United States;" and early in October negotia- 
tions were begun and proceeded rapidly. On 
the part of England, the affair was conducted 
by Oswald, assisted by Strachey and Fitzher- 
bert, who had succeeded Grenville. In the 
course of the month John Adams arrived in 
Paris, and a few weeks later Henry Laurens, 
who had been exchanged for Lord Cornwallis 
and released from the Tower, was added to the 
company. Adams had a holy horror of French- 
men in general, and of Count Vergennes in 
particular. He shared that common but grossly 
mistaken view of Frenchmen which regards them 
as shallow, frivolous, and insincere ; and he was 
26 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

indignant at the position taken by Vergennes 
on the question of the fisheries. In this, John 
Adams felt as all New Englanders felt, and he 
realized the importance of the question from a 
national point of view, as became the man who 
in later years was to earn lasting renown as one 
of the chief founders of the American navy. 
His behaviour on reaching Paris was character- 
istic. It is said that he left Count Vergennes to 
learn of his arrival through the newspapers. It 
was certainly some time before he called upon 
him, and he took occasion, besides, to express 
his opinions about republics and monarchies in 
terms which courtly Frenchmen thought very 
rude. 

The arrival of Adams fully decided the mat- 
ter as to a separate negotiation with England. 
He agreed with Jay that Vergennes should be 
kept as far as possible in the dark until every- 
thing was cut and dried, and Franklin was re- 
luctantly obliged to yield. The treaty of alliance 
between France and the United States had ex- 
presslv stipulated that neither power should ever 
make peace without the consent of Franklin 
the other, and in view of this Frank- trjaylnd 
lin was loath to do anything which Adams 
might seem like abandoning the ally whose 
timely interposition had alone enabled Wash- 
ington to achieve the crowning triumph of 
Yorktown. In justice to Vergennes, it should 

27 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

be borne in mind that he had kept strict faith 
with us in regard to every point that had been 
expressly stipulated ; and Franklin, who felt 
that he understood Frenchmen better than his 
colleagues, was naturally unwilling to seem be- 
hindhand in this respect. At the same time, in 
regard to matters not expressly stipulated, Ver- 
gennes was clearly playing a sharp game against 
us; and it is undeniable that, without departing 
technically from the obligations of the alliance, 
Jay and Adams — two men as honourable as 
ever lived — played a very sharp defensive game 
against him. The traditional French subtlety 
was no match for Yankee shrewdness. The 
treaty with England was not concluded until the 
consent of France had been obtained, and thus 
the express stipulation was respected; but a 
thorough and detailed agreement was reached 
as to what the purport of the treaty should be, 
while our not too friendly ally was kept in the 
dark. The annals of modern diplomacy have 
afforded few stranger spectacles. With the in- 
dispensable aid of France we had just got the 
better of England in fight, and now we pro- 
ceeded amicably to divide territory and com- 
mercial privileges with the enemy, and to make 
arrangements in which the ally was virtually 
ignored. It ceases to be a paradox, however, 
when we remember that with the change of gov- 
ernment in England some essential conditions 
28 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

of the case were changed. The England against 
which we had fought was the hostile England 
of Lord North ; the England with which we 
were now dealing was the friendly England of 
Shelburne and Pitt. For the moment, the Eng- 
lish race, on both sides of the Atlantic, was 
united in its main purpose and divided only by 
questions of detail, while the rival colonizing 
power, which sought to work in a direction con- 
trary to the general interests of English-speak- 
ing people, was in great measure disregarded. 

As soon as the problem was thus virtually 
reduced to a negotiation between the American 
commissioners and Lord Shelburne's ministry, 
the air was cleared in a moment. The principal 
questions had already been discussed between 
Franklin and Oswald. Independence being first 
acknowledged, the question of boundaries came 
up for settlement. England had little interest 
in regaining the territory between the The separate 
Alleghanies and the Mississippi, the American 
forts in which were already held by agreed upon: 
American soldiers, and she relin- *• ^ou"^^"^^ 
quished all claim upon it. The Mississippi 
River thus became the dividing line between 
the United States and the Spanish possessions, 
and its navigation was made free alike to British 
and American ships. Franklin's suggestion of 
a cession of Canada and Nova Scotia was aban- 
doned without discussion. It was agreed that 

2Q 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

the boundary line should start at the mouth of 
the river St. Croix, and, running to a point near 
Lake Madawaska in the highlands separating 
the Atlantic watershed from that of the St. Law- 
rence, should follow these highlands to the head 
of the Connecticut River, and then descend the 
middle of the river to the forty-fifth parallel, 
thence running westward and through the centre 
of the water communications of the Great Lakes 
to the Lake of the Woods, thence to the source 
of the Mississippi, which was supposed to be 
west of this lake. This line was marked in red 
ink by Oswald on one of Mitchell's maps of 
North America, to serve as a memorandum es- 
tablishing the precise meaning of the words used 
in the description. It ought to have been ac- 
curately fixed in its details by surveys made 
upon the spot; but no commissioners were ap- 
pointed for this purpose. The language relating 
to the northeastern portion of the boundary con- 
tained some inaccuracies which were revealed by 
later surveys, and the map used by Oswald was 
lost. Hence a further question arose between 
Great Britain and the United States, which was 
finally settled by the Ashburton treaty in 1842. 
The Americans retained the right of catching 
^. , . fish on the banks of Newfoundland 

2. Fisheries ; i /^ i r r o t 

commercial and m the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but 

intercourse j^^^ ^j^^ ^..^j^^ ^^ ^^^.^^^ ^j^^j^. ^^j^ ^^ 

the Newfoundland coast. On the other hand, 
30 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

no permission was given to British subjects to 
fish on the coasts of the United States. As 
regarded commercial intercourse, Jay sought to 
estabUsh complete reciprocal freedom between 
the two countries, and a clause was proposed 
to the effect that "all British merchants and 
merchant ships, on the one hand, shall enjoy 
in the United States, and in all places belong- 
ing to them, the same protection and commer- 
cial privileges, and be liable only to the same 
charges and duties as their own merchants and 
merchant ships ; and, on the other hand, the 
merchants and merchant ships of the United 
States shall enjoy in all places belonging to 
his Britannic Majesty the same protection and 
commercial privileges, and be liable only to the 
same charges and duties as British merchants 
and merchant ships, saving always to the char- 
tered trading companies of Great Britain such 
exclusive use and trade, and the respective ports 
and establishments, as neither the other sub- 
jects of Great Britain nor any the most fa- 
voured nation participate in." Unfortunately 
for both countries, this liberal provision was 
rejected on the ground that the ministry had no 
authority to interfere with the Navigation Act. 
Only two questions were now left to be dis- 
posed of, — the question of paying private 
debts, and that of compensating the American 
loyalists for the loss of property and general 
3^ 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

rough treatment which they had suffered. There 
were many old debts outstanding from Ameri- 
3. Private Can to British merchants. These had 
debts been for the most part incurred before 

1775, and while many honest debtors, impov- 
erished during the war, felt unable to pay, there 
were doubtless many others who were ready to 
take advantage of circumstances and refuse the 
payment which they were perfectly able to 
make. It was scarcely creditable to us that any 
such question should have arisen. Franklin, 
indeed, argued that these debts were more than 
fully offset by damages done to private pro- 
perty by British soldiers : as, for example, in 
the wanton raids on the coasts of Connecticut 
and Virginia in 1779, or in Prevost's buccaneer- 
ing march against Charleston. To cite these 
atrocities, however, as a reason for the non- 
payment of debts legitimately owed to innocent 
merchants in London and Glasgow was to argue 
as if two wrongs could make a right. The strong 
sense of John Adams struck at once to the root 
of the matter. He declared "he had no notion 
of cheating anybody. The questions of pay- 
ing debts and compensating Tories were two." 
This terse statement carried the day, and it was 
finally decided that all private debts on either 
side, whether incurred before or after 1775, 
remained still binding, and must be discharged 
at their full value in sterling money. 

32 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

The last question of all was the one most 
difficult to settle. There were many loyalists in 
the United States who had sacrificed everything 
in the support of the British cause, and it was 
unquestionably the duty of the British govern- 
ment to make every possible effort to insure 
them against further injury, and, if practicable, 
to make good their losses already incurred. 
From Virginia and the New England states, 
where they were few in number, they had 
mostly fled, and their estates had been confis- 
cated. In New York and South Carolina, where 
they remained in great numbers, they were 
still waging a desultory war with the patriots, 
which far exceeded in cruelty and bitterness the 
struggle between the regular armies. In many 
cases they had, at the solicitation of the British 
government, joined the invading army, and 
been organized into companies and regiments. 
The regular troops defeated at King's Moun- 
tain, and those whom Arnold took 
with him to Virgmia, were nearly all sationofioy- 
American loyalists. Lord Shelburne 
felt that it would be wrong to abandon these 
unfortunate men to the vengeance of their fel- 
low countrymen, and he insisted that the treaty 
should contain an amnesty clause providing for 
the restoration of the Tories to their civil 
rights, with compensation for their confiscated 
property. However disagreeable such a course 

33 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

might seem to the victorious Americans, there 
were many precedents for it in European his- 
tory. It had indeed come to be customary at 
the close of civil wars, and the effect of such a 
policy had invariably been good. Cromwell, in 
his hour of triumph, inflicted no disabilities 
upon his political enemies; and when Charles II. 
was restored to the throne the healing effect 
of the amnesty act then passed was so great 
that historians sometimes ask what in the world 
had become of that Puritan party which a mo- 
ment before had seemed supreme in the land. 
At the close of the war of the Spanish Succes- 
sion, the rebellious people of Catalonia were 
indemnified for their losses, at the request of 
England, and with a similar good effect. In 
view of such European precedents, Vergennes 
agreed with Shelburne as to the propriety of 
securing compensation and further immunity 
for the Tories in America. John Adams in- 
sinuated that the French minister took this 
course because he foresaw that the presence of 
the Tories in the United States would keep the 
people perpetually divided into a French party 
and an English party ; but such a suspicion 
was quite uncalled for. There is no reason to 
suppose that in this instance Vergennes had 
anything at heart but the interests of humanity 
and justice. 

On the other hand, the Americans brought 
34 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

forward very strong reasons why the Tories 
should not be indemnified bv Congress. First, 
as FrankHn urged, many of them had, by their 
misrepresentations to the British government, 
helped to stir up the disputes which led to the 
war; and as they had made their bed, so 
they must lie in it. Secondly, such of them as 
had been concerned in burning and plundering 
defenceless villages, and wielding the tomahawk 
in concert with bloodthirsty Indians, deserved 
no compassion. It was rather for them to make 
compensation for the miserv they had wrought. 
Thirdly, the confiscated Tory propertv had 
passed into the hands of purchasers who had 
bought it in good faith and could not now be 
dispossessed, and in many cases it had been 
distributed here and there and lost sight of. 
An estimate of the gross amount might be 
made, and a corresponding sum appropriated 
for indemnification. But, fourthly, the country 
was so impoverished by the war that its own 
soldiers, the brave men whose heroic exertions 
had won the independence of the United States, 
were at this moment in sore distress for the 
want of the pay which Congress could not give 
them, but to which its honour was sacredly 
pledged. The American government was 
clearly bound to pay its just debts to the 
friends who had suffered so much in its behalf 
before it should proceed to entertain a chimeric 
35 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

cal scheme for satisfying its enemies. For, 
fifthly, any such scheme was in the present in- 
stance clearly chimerical. The acts under which 
Tory property had been confiscated were acts 
of state legislatures, and Congress had no juris- 
diction over such a matter. If restitution was 
to be made, it must be made by the separate 
states. The question could not for a moment 
be entertained by the general government or 
its agents. 

Upon these points the American commis- 
sioners were united and inexorable. Various 
suggestions were offered in vain by the British. 
Their troops still held the city of New York, 
and it was doubtful whether the Americans 
could hope to capture it in another campaign. 
It was urged that England might fairly claim 
in exchange for New York a round sum of 
money wherewith the Tories might be indem- 
nified. It was further urged that certain unap- 
propriated lands in the Mississippi valley might 
be sold for the same purpose. But the Ameri- 
cans would not hear of buying one of their own 
cities, whose independence was already acknow- 
ledged by the first article of the treaty which 
recognized the independence of the United 
States ; and as for the western lands, they were 
wanted as a means of paying our own war 
debts and providing for our veteran soldiers. 
Several times Shelburne sent word to Paris that 

36 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

he would break off the negotiation unless the 
loyalist claims were in some way recognized. 
But the Americans were obdurate. They had 
one advantage, and knew it. Parliament was 
soon to meet, and it was doubtful whether Lord 
Shelburne could command a sufficient majority 
to remain long in office. He was, accordingly, 
very anxious to complete the treaty of peace, 
or at least to detach America from the French 
alliance, as soon as possible. The American 
commissioners were also eager to conclude the 
treaty. They had secured very favourable terms, 
and were loath to run any risk of spoiling what 
had been done. Accordingly, they made a pro- 
posal in the form of a compromise, which never- 
theless settled the point in their favour. The 
matter, they said, was beyond the jurisdiction 
of Congress, but they agreed that Congress 
should recommend to the several states to desist 
from further proceedings against the Tories, 
and to reconsider their laws on this subject; it 
should further recommend that persons with 
claims upon confiscated lands might be author- 
ized to use legal means of recovering them, and 
to this end might be allowed to pass to and fro 
without personal risk for the term of one year. 
The British commissioners accepted this com- 
promise, unsatisfactory as it was, because it 
was really impossible to obtain anything better 
without throwing the whole negotiation over- 
37 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

board. The constitutional difficulty was a real 
one indeed. As Adams told Oswald, if the 
point were further insisted upon, Congress 
would be obliged to refer it to the several 
states, and no one could tell how long it might 
be before any decisive result could be reached 
in this way. Meanwhile, the state of war would 
continue, and it would be cheaper for England 
to indemnify the loyalists herself than to pay 
the war bills for a single month. Franklin 
added that, if the loyalists were to be indemni- 
fied, it would be necessary also to reckon up 
the damage they had done in burning houses 
and kidnapping slaves, and then strike a bal- 
ance between the two accounts ; and he gravely 
suggested that a special commission might be 
appointed for this purpose. At the prospect 
of endless discussion which this suggestion 
involved, the British commissioners gave way 
and accepted the American terms, although 
they were frankly told that too much must not 
be expected from the recommendation of Con- 
gress. The articles were signed on the 30th of 
November, six days before the meeting of 
Parliament. Hostilities in America were to 
cease at once, and upon the completion of the 
treaty the British fleets and armies were to be 
immediately withdrawn from every place which 
they held within the limits of the United 
States. A supplementary and secret article pro- 

38 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

vided that if England, on making peace with 
Spain, should recover West Florida, the north- 
ern boundary of that province should be a line 
running due east from the mouth of the Yazoo 
River to the Chattahoochee. 

Thus by skilful diplomacy the Americans 
had gained all that could reasonably be asked, 
while the work of making a general peace was 
greatly simplified. It was declared in the pre- 
amble that the articles here signed were pro- 
visional, and that the treaty was not to take 
effect until terms of peace should be agreed on 
between England and France. Without delay, 
Franklin laid the whole matter, except the 
secret article, before Vergennes, who forthwith 
accused the Americans of ingratitude and bad 
faith. Franklin's reply, that at the worst they 
could only be charged with want of diplomatic 
courtesy, has sometimes been con- vergennes 
demned as insincere, but on inade- does not like 

1 T T 1 1 , the way in 

quate grounds. Irle had consented which it has 
with reluctance to the separate nego- ^^^" "^^"^ 
tiation, because he did not wish to give France 
any possible ground for complaint, whether real 
or ostensible. There does not seem, however, 
to have been sufficient justification for so grave 
a charge as was made by Vergennes. If the 
French negotiations had failed until after the 
overthrow of the Shelburne ministry; if Fox, 
on coming into power, had taken advantage of 
39 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

the American treaty to continue the war against 
France ; and if under such circumstances the 
Americans had abandoned their ally, then un- 
doubtedly they would have become guilty of 
ingratitude and treachery. There is no reason 
for supposing that they would ever have done 
so, had the circumstances arisen. Their pre- 
amble made it impossible for them honourably 
to abandon France until a full peace should be 
made, and more than this France could not 
reasonably demand. The Americans had kept 
to the strict letter of their contract, as Ver- 
gennes had kept to the strict letter of his, and 
beyond this they meted out exactly the same 
measure of frankness which they received. To 
say that our debt of gratitude to France was 
such as to require us to acquiesce in her scheme 
for enriching our enemy Spain at our expense 
is simply childish. Franklin was undoubtedly 
right. The commissioners may have been guilty 
of a breach of diplomatic courtesy, but nothing 
more. Vergennes might be sarcastic about it for 
the moment, but the cordial relations between 
France and America remained undisturbed. 

On the part of the Americans the treaty of 
Paris was one of the most brilliant triumphs in 
A great ^^^ wholc history of modern diplo- 

dipiomatic macy. Had the affair been managed 

"^^ by men of ordinary ability, some of 

the greatest results of the Revolutionary War 
40 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

would probably have been lost ; the new re- 
public would have been cooped up between the 
Atlantic Ocean and the Alleghany Mountains; 
our westward expansion would have been im- 
possible without further warfare in which Euro- 
pean powers would have been involved ; and 
the formation of our Federal Union would 
doubtless have been effectively hindered, if 
not, indeed, altogether prevented. To the 
grand triumph the varied talents of Franklin, 
Adams, and Jay alike contributed. To the 
latter is due the credit of detecting and baffling 
the sinister designs of France ; but without the 
tact of Franklin this probably could not have 
been accomplished without offending France in 
such wise as to spoil everything. It is, however, 
to the rare discernment and boldness of Jay, 
admirably seconded by the sturdy Adams, that 
the chief praise is due. The turning-point of 
the whole affair was the visit of Dr. Vaughan 
to Lord Shelburne. The foundation of success 
was the separate negotiation with England, and 
here there had stood in the way a more for- 
midable obstacle than the mere reluctance of 
Franklin. The chevalier Luzerne and his sec- 
retary Marbois had been busy with Congress, 
and that body had sent well-meant but silly 
and pusillanimous instructions to its commis- 
sioners at Paris to be guided in all things by 
the wishes of the French court. To disregard 
41 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

such instructions required all the lofty courage 
for which Jay and Adams were noted, and for 
the moment it brought upon them something 
like a rebuke from Congress, conveyed in a 
letter from Robert Livingston. As Adams said, 
in his vehement way, " Congress surrendered 
their own sovereignty into the hands of a 
French minister. Blush ! blush ! ye guilty re- 
cords ! blush and perish ! It is glory to have 
broken such infamous orders." True enough ; 
the commissioners knew that in diplomacy, as 
in warfare, to the agent at a distance from his 
principal some discretionary power must be 
allowed. They assumed great responsibility, 
and won a victory of incalculable grandeur. 

The course of the Americans produced no 
effect upon the terms obtained by France, but 
it seriously modified the case with Spain. Un- 
The Spanish able to obtain Gibraltar by arms, that 
treaty power hopcd to gct it by diplomacy ; 

and with the support of France she seemed dis- 
posed to make the cession of the great fortress 
an ultimatum, without which the war must go 
on. Shelburne, on his part, was willing to ex- 
change Gibraltar for an island in the West In- 
dies ; but it was difficult to get the cabinet to 
agree on the matter, and the scheme was vio- 
lently opposed by the people, for the heroic 
defence of the stronghold had invested it with 
a halo of romance and endeared it to every one. 
42 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

Nevertheless, so persistent was Spain, and so 
great the desire for peace on the part of the 
ministry, that they had resolved to exchange 
Gibraltar for Guadaloupe, when the news ar- 
rived of the treaty with America. The min- 
isters now took a bold stand, and refused to 
hear another word about giving up Gibraltar. 
Spain scolded, and threatened a renewal of hos- 
tilities, but France was unwilling to give further 
assistance, and the matter was settled by Eng- 
land's surrendering East Florida, and allowing 
the Spaniards to keep West Florida and Mi- 
norca, which were already in their hands. 

By the treaty with France, the West India 
islands of Granada, St. Vincent, St. Christo- 
pher, Dominica, Nevis, and Montserrat were 
restored to England, which in turn The French 
restored St. Lucia and ceded Tobago ^^^"^^^ 
to France. The French were allowed to fortify 
Dunkirk, and received some slight concessions 
in India and Africa; they retained their share 
in the Newfoundland fisheries, and recovered 
the little neighbouring islands of St. Pierre and 
Miquelon. For the fourteen hundred million 
francs which France had expended in the war, 
she had the satisfaction of detaching the Amer- 
ican colonies from England, thus inflicting a 
blow which it was confidently hoped would 
prove fatal to the maritime power of her ancient 
rival ; but beyond this short-lived satisfaction, 

43 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

the fallaciousness of which events were soon to 
show, she obtained very little. On the 20th of 
January, 1783, the preliminaries of peace were 
signed between England, on the one hand, 
and France and Spain, on the other. A truce 
was at the same time concluded with Holland, 
which was soon followed by a peace, in w^hich 
most of the conquests on either side were re- 
stored. 

A second English ministry was now about 
to be wrecked on the rock of this group of 
treaties. Lord Shelburne's government had at 
no time been a strong one. H.e had made many 
enemies by his liberal and reforming measures, 
and he had alienated most of his colleagues by 
his reserved demeanour and seeming want of 
confidence in them. In December several of 
the ministers resigned. The strength of parties 
in the House of Commons was thus quaintly 
reckoned by Gibbon: "Minister 140; Rey- 
nard 90 ; Boreas 120 ; the rest unknown or un- 
certain." But " Reynard " and " Boreas " were 
now about to join forces in one of the strangest 
^ ,. . ^ coalitions ever known in the historv of 

Coalition or _ - 

Fox with politics. No Statesman ever attacked 
another more ferociously than Fox had 
attacked North during the past ten years. He 
had showered abuse upon him ; accused him of 
" treachery and falsehood," of " public perfidy," 
and " breach of a solemn specific promise ; " 
44 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

and had even gone so far as to declare to his 
face a hope that he would be called upon to 
expiate his abominable crimes upon the scaf- 
fold. Within a twelvemonth he had thus spoken 
of Lord North and his colleagues : " From the 
moment when I shall make any terms with one 
of them, I will rest satisfied to be called the 
most infamous of mankind. I would not for 
an instant think of a coalition with men who, 
in every public and private transaction as min- 
isters, have shown themselves void of every 
principle of honour and honesty. In the hands 
of such men I would not trust my honour even 
for a moment.'' Still more recently, when at a 
loss for words strong enough to express his be- 
lief in the wickedness of Shelburne, he declared 
that he had no better opinion of that man than 
to deem him capable of forming an alliance with 
North. We may judge, then, of the general 
amazement when, in the middle of February, 
it turned out that Fox had himself done this 
very thing. An " ill-omened marriage," William 
Pitt called it in the House of Commons. " If 
this ill-omened marriage is not already solem- 
nized, I know a just and lawful impediment, 
and in the name of the public safety I here forbid 
the banns." Throughout the country the indig- 
nation was great. Many people had blamed Fox 
for not following up his charges by actually 
bringing articles of impeachment against Lord 

45 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

North. That the two enemies should thus sud- 
denly become leagued in friendship seemed ut- 
terly monstrous. It injured Fox extremely in 
the opinion of the country, and it injured North 
still more, for it seemed like a betrayal of the 
king on his part, and his forgiveness of so many 
insults looked mean-spirited. It does not ap- 
pear, however, that there was really any strong 
personal animosity between North and Fox. 
They were both men of very amiable character, 
and almost incapable of cherishing resentment. 
The language of parliamentary orators was ha- 
bitually violent, and the huge quantities of wine 
which gentlemen in those days used to drink 
may have helped to make it extravagant. The 
excessive vehemence of political invective often 
deprived it of half its effect. One day, after 
Fox had exhausted his vocabulary of abuse 
upon Lord George Germain, Lord North said 
to him, "You were in very high feather to-day, 
Charles, and I am glad you did not fall upon 
me." On another occasion, it is said that while 
Fox was thundering against North's unexam- 
pled turpitude, the object of his furious tirade 
cosily dropped off to sleep. Gibbon, who was 
the friend of both statesmen, expressly declares 
that they bore each other no ill-will. But while 
thus alike indisposed to harbour bitter thoughts, 
there was one man for whom both Fox and 
North felt an abiding distrust and dislike ; and 

46 



RESULTS OF YORFCTOWN 

that man was Lord Shelburne, the prime min- 
ister. 

As a political pupil of Burke, Fox shared 
that statesman's distrust of the whole school of 
Lord Chatham, to which Shelburne belonged. 
In many respects these statesmen were far more 
advanced than Burke, but they did not suffi- 
ciently realize the importance of checking the 
crown by means of a united and powerful min- 
istry. Fox thoroughly understood that much 
of the mischief of the past twenty years, in- 
cluding the loss of America, had come from 
the system of weak and divided ministries, 
which gave the king such great opportunity 
for wreaking his evil will. He had himself 
been a member of such a ministrv, which had 
fallen seven months ago. When the king sin- 
gled out Shelburne for his confidence, Fox 
naturally concluded that Shelburne was to be 
made to play the royal game, as North had 
been made to play it for so many years. This 
was very unjust to Shelburne, but there is no 
doubt that Fox was perfectly honest in his be- 
lief. It seemed to him that the present state 
of things must be brought to an end, at what- 
ever cost. A ministry strong enough to curb 
the king could be formed only by a coales- 
cence of two out of the three existing par- 
ties. A coalescence of Old and New Whigs 
had been tried last spring, and failed. It only 

47 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

remained now to try the effect of a coalescence 
of Old Whigs and Tories. 

Such was doubtless the chief motive of Fox 
in this extraordinary move. The conduct of 
North seems harder to explain, but it was prob- 
ably due to a reaction of feeling on his part. 
He had done violence to his own convictions 
out of weak compassion for George TIL, and 
had carried on the American war for four years 
after he had been thoroughly convinced that 
peace ought to be made. Remorse for this is 
said to have haunted him to the end of his life. 
When in his old age he became blind, he bore 
his misfortune with his customary lightness of 
heart ; and one day, meeting the veteran Barre, 
who had also lost his eyesight, he exclaimed, 
with his unfailing wit, " Well, colonel, in spite 
of all our differences, I suppose there are no 
two men in England who would be gladder 
to see each other than you and I." But while 
Lord North could jest about his blindness, the 
memory of his ill-judged subservience to the 
king was something that he could not laugh 
away, and among his nearest friends he was 
sometimes heard to reproach himself bitterly. 
When, therefore, in 1783, he told Fox that 
he fully agreed with him in thinking that the 
royal power ought to be curbed, he was doubt- 
less speaking the truth. No man had a better 
right to such an opinion than that which he 

48 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

had gained through sore experience. In his 
own ministry, as he said to Fox, he took the 
system as he found it, and had not vigour and 
resolution enough to put an end to it; but he 
was now quite convinced that in such a coun- 
try as England, while the king should be treated 
with all outward show of respect, he ought on 
no account to be allowed to exercise any real 
power. 

Now this was in 1783 the paramount politi- 
cal question in England, just as much as the 
question of secession was paramount in the 
United States in 1861. Other questions could 
be postponed ; the question of curbing the king 
could not. Upon this all-important point North 
had come to agree with Fox ; and as the prin- 
cipal motive of their coalition may be thus ex- 
plained, the historian is not called upon to lay 
too much stress upon the lower motives as- 
signed in profusion by their political enemies. 
This explanation, however, does not quite cover 
the case. The mass of the Tories would never 
follow North in an avowed attempt to curb the 
king, but they agreed with the followers of Fox, 
though not with Fox himself, in holy horror of 
parliamentary reform, and were alarmed by a 
recent declaration of Shelburne that the suffrage 
must be extended so as to admit a hundred new 
county members. Thus while the two leaders 
were urged to coalescence by one motive, their 
49 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

followers were largely swayed by another, and 
this added much to the mystery and general 
unintelligibleness of the movement. In taking 
this step Fox made the mistake which was char- 
acteristic of the Old Whig party. He gave too 
little heed to the great public outside the walls 
of the House of Commons. The coalition, once 
made, was very strong in Parliament, but it mys- 
tified and scandalized the people, and this pop- 
ular disapproval by and by made it easy for the 
king to overthrow it. 

It was agreed to choose the treaty as the oc- 
casion for the combined attack upon the Shel- 
burne ministry. North, as the minister who had 
conducted the unsuccessful war, was bound to 
oppose the treaty, in any case. It would not do 
for him to admit that better terms 
sheiburne's could not havc been made. The 
ministry treaty was also very unpopular with 

Fox's party, and with the nation at large. It 
was thought that too much territory had been 
conceded to the Americans, and fault was found 
with the article on the fisheries. But the point 
which excited most indignation was the virtual 
abandonment of the loyalists, for here the hon- 
our of England was felt to be at stake. On this 
ground the treatv was emphatically condemned 
by Burke, Sheridan, and Wilberforce, no less 
than by North. It was ablv defended in the 
Commons by Pitt, and in the Lords by Shel- 
50 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

burne himself, who argued that he had but the 
alternative of accepting the terms as they stood, 
or continuing the war ; and since it had come 
to this, he said, without spilling a drop of blood, 
or incurring one fifth of the expense of a year's 
campaign, the comfort and happiness of the 
American loyalists could be easily secured. By 
this he meant that, should America fail to make 
good their losses, it was far better for England 
to indemnify them herself than to prolong inde- 
finitely a bloody and ruinous struggle. As we 
shall hereafter see, this liberal and enlightened 
policy was the one which England really pur- 
sued, so far as practicable, and her honour was 
completely saved. That Shelburne and Pitt 
were quite right there can now be little doubt. 
But argument was of no avail against the re- 
sistless power of the coalition. On the 17th 
of February Lord John Cavendish moved an 
amendment to the ministerial address on the 
treaty, refusing to approve it. On the 21st he 
moved a further amendment condemning the 
treaty. Both motions were carried, and on the 
24th Lord Shelburne resigned. He did not dis- 
solve Parliament and appeal to the country, 
partly because he was aware of his personal un- 
popularity, and partly because, in spite of the 
general disgust at the coalition, there was little 
doubt that on the particular question of the 
treaty the public opinion agreed with the major- 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

ity in Parliament, and not with the ministry. 
For this reason, Pitt, though personally popu- 
lar, saw that it was no time for him to take the 
first place in the government, and when the king 
proceeded to offer it to him he declined. 

For more than five weeks, while the treasury 
was nearly empty, and the question of peace or 
war still hung in the balance, England was with- 
out a regular government, while the angry king 
went hunting for some one who would consent 
to be his prime minister. He was determined 
not to submit to the coalition. He was natu- 

The king's rally enraged at Lord North for turn- 
wrath 



ing against him. Meeting one day 
North's father, Lord Guilford, he went up to 
him, tragically wringing his hands, and exclaimed 
in accents of woe, " Did I ever think, my Lord 
Guilford, that your son would thus have be- 
trayed me into the hands of Mr. Fox? " He 
appealed in vain to Lord Gower, and then to 
Lord Temple, to form a ministry. Lord Gower 
suggested that perhaps Thomas Pitt, cousin of 
William, might be willing to serve. " I desired 
him," said the king, " to apply to Mr. Thomas 
Pitt, or Mr. Thomas anybody.'* It was of no 
use. By the id of April Parliament had be- 
come furious at the delay, and George was 
obliged to yield. The Duke of Portland was 
brought in as nominal prime minister, with Fox 
as foreign secretary. North as secretary for home 
52 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

and colonies, Cavendish as chancellor of the 
exchequer, and Keppel as first lord of the ad- 
miralty. The only Tory in the cabinet, except- 
ing North, was Lord Stormont, who became 



P 



resident of the council. The commissioners 



Fitzherbert and Oswald, were recalled from 
Paris, and the Duke of Manchester and David 
Hartley, son of the great philosopher, were ap- 
pointed in their stead. Negotiations continued 
through the spring and summer. Attempts were 
made to change some of the articles, especially 
the obnoxious article concerning the loyalists, 
but all to no purpose. Hartley's attempt to 
negotiate a mutually advantageous commercial 
treaty with America also unfortunately ^^^^ ^ 
came to nothing. The definitive treaty is adopted, 
which was finally signed on the 3d of ^he'coai'i-^ 
September, 1783, was an exact tran- j|.°" ^j^^^^i^" 
script of the treaty which Shelburne presently 
had made, and for making which the 
present ministers had succeeded in turning him 
out of ofrice. No more emphatic justification of 
Shelburne's conduct of this business could pos- 
sibly have been obtained. 

The coalition ministry did not long; survive 
the final signing of the treaty. The events of 
the next few months are curiously instructive as 
showing the quiet and stealthy way in which a 
political revolution may be consummated in 
a thoroughly conservative and constitutional 
S3 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

country. Early in the winter session of Parlia- 
ment Fox brought in his famous bill for organ- 
izing the government of the great empire which 
Clive and Hastings had now built up in India. 
Popular indignation at the ministry had been 
strengthened by its adopting the same treaty of 
peace for the making of which it had assaulted 
Shelburne ; and now, on the passage of the 
India Bill by the House of Commons, there w^as 
a great outcry. Many provisions of the bill were 
exceedingly unpopular, and its chief object was 
alleged to be the concentration of the immense 
patronage of India into the hands of the old 
Whig families. With the popular feeling thus 
warmly enlisted against the ministry, George III. 
was now emboldened to make war on it by vio- 
lent means, — and, accordingly, when the bill 
came up in the House of Lords, he caused it 
to be announced, by Lord Temple, that any 
peer who should vote in its favour would be 
regarded as an enemy by the king. Four days 
later the House of Commons, by a vote of i ^^ 
to 80, resolved that " to report any opinion, or 
pretended opinion, of his majesty upon any bill 
or other proceeding depending in either house 
of Parliament, with a view to influence the votes 
of the members, is a high crime and misdemean- 
our, derogatory to the honour of the crown, a 
breach of the fundamental privileges of Parlia- 
ment, and subversive of the constitution of this 
54 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

country." A more explicit or emphatic defiance 
to the king would have been hard to frame. 
Two days afterward the Lords rejected the India 
Bill, and on the next day, the i8th of Decem- 
ber, George turned the ministers out of office. 
In this grave constitutional crisis the king 
invited William Pitt to form a government, and 
this young statesman, who had consistently op- 
posed the coalition, now saw that his hour was 
come. Lie was more than any one ^onstku- 
else the favourite of the people, tionai crisis, 
Fox's political reputation was eclipsed, ^e'over- 
and North's was destroyed, by their whelming 

J ^ ' ^ victory or 

unseemly alliance. People were sick Pkt, May, 
of the whole state of things which ^^ ^ 
had accompanied the American war. Pitt, who 
had only come into Parliament in 1780, was 
free from these unpleasant associations. The 
unblemished purity of his life, his incorrupt- 
ible integrity, his rare disinterestedness, and his 
transcendent ability in debate were known to 
every one. As the worthy son of Lord Chat- 
ham, whose name was associated with the most 
glorious moment of English history, he was 
peculiarly dear to the people. His position, 
however, on taking supreme office at the in- 
stance of a king who had just committed an 
outrageous breach of the constitution, was ex- 
tremely critical, and only the most consummate 
skill could have won from the chaos such a vic- 

S5 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

tory as he was about to win. When he became 
first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the 
exchequer, in December, 1783, he had barely 
completed his twenty-fifth year. All his col- 
leagues in the new cabinet were peers, so that 
he had to fight single-handed in the Commons 
against the united talents of Burke and Sher- 
idan, Fox and North ; and there was a heavy 
majority against him, besides. In view of this 
adverse majority, it was Pitt's constitutional 
duty to dissolve Parliament and appeal to the 
country. But Fox, unwilling to imperil his great 
majority by a new election, now made the fatal 
mistake of opposing a dissolution ; thus show- 
ing his distrust of the people and his dread 
of their verdict. With consummate tact, Pitt 
allowed the debates to go on till March, and 
then, when the popular feeling in his favour 
had grown into wild enthusiasm, he dissolved 
Parliament. In the general election which fol- 
lowed, 160 members of the coalition lost their 
seats, and Pitt obtained the greatest majority 
that has ever been given to an English min- 
ister. 

Thus was completed the political revolution 
in England which was set on foot by the Amer- 
ican victory at Yorktown. Its full significance 
was only gradually realized. For the moment 
it might seem that it was the king who had tri- 
umphed. He had shattered the alliance which 

56 



RESULTS OF YORKTOWN 

had been formed for the purpose of curbing him, 
and the result of the election had virtually con- 
doned his breach of the constitution. This ap- 
parent victory, however, had been won only by 
a direct appeal to the people, and all its advan- 
tages accrued to the people, and not overthrow 
to George III. His ingenious system of George 

^ ,...,, ^ . . .' ., 111. 's system 

of weak and divided ministries, with of personal 
himself for balance-wheel, was de- g^--""'-^"^ 
stroyed. For the next seventeen years the real 
ruler of England was not George III., but 
William Pitt, who, with his great popular fol- 
lowing, wielded such a power as no English 
sovereign had possessed since the days of Eliza- 
beth. The political atmosphere was cleared of 
intrigue ; and Fox, in the legitimate attitude 
of leader of the new opposition, entered upon 
the glorious part of his career. There was now 
set in motion that great work of reform which, 
hindered for a while by the reaction against the 
French revolutionists, won its decisive victory 
in 1832. Down to the very moment at which 
American and British history begin to flow in 
distinct and separate channels, it is interesting 
to observe how closely they are implicated with 
each other. The victory of the Americans not 
only set on foot the British revolution here 
described, but it figured most prominently in 
each of the political changes that we have wit- 
nessed, down to the very eve of the overthrow 

57 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

of the coalition. The system which George III. 
had sought to fasten upon America, in order 
that he might fasten it upon England, was shaken 
off and shattered by the good people of both 
countries at almost the same moment of time. 



58 



II 



THE THIRTEEN COMMON- 
WEALTHS 

THE times that tried men's souls are 
over," said Thomas Paine in the last 
number of the " Crisis," which he pub- 
lished after hearing that the negotiations for a 
treaty of peace had been concluded. The pre- 
liminary articles had been signed at Paris on 
the 20th of January, 1783. The news arrived 
in America on the 23d of March, in a letter to 
the president of Congress from Lafayette, who 
had returned to France soon after the victory 
at Yorktown. A few days later Sir Guy Carle- 
ton received his orders from the ministry to 
proclaim a cessation of hostilities by land and 
sea. A similar proclamation made by Congress 
was formally communicated to the army by 
Washington on the 19th of April, the eighth 
anniversary of the first bloodshed on Lexing- 
ton green. Since Wayne had driven the British 
from Georgia, early in the preceding year, there 
had bee n no military operations between the 
regular armies. Guerrilla warfare between Whig 
and Tory had been kept iip-in parts of South 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

Carolina and on the frontier of New York, 
where Thayendanegea was still alert and de- 
fiant; while beyond the mountains the toma- 
hawk and scalping-knife had been busy, and 
Washington's old friend and comrade. Colonel 
Crawford, had been scorched to death by the 
firebrands of the red demons ; but the armies 
had sat still, awaiting the peace which every one 
felt sure must speedily come. After Cornwallis's 
surrender, Washington marched his army back 
to the Hudson, and established his headquarters 
at Newburgh. Rochambeau followed somewhat 
later, and in September joined the Americans 
on the Hudson ; but in December the French 
army marched to Boston, and there embarked 
for France. After the formal cessation of hos- 
tilities on the 19th of April, 1783, Washington 
granted furloughs to most of his soldiers; and 
these weather-beaten veterans trudged home- 
ward in all directions, in little groups of four 
or five, depending largely for their subsistence 
on the hospitality of the farm-houses along the 
road. Arrived at home, their muskets were hung 
over the chimney-piece as trophies for grand- 
children to be proud of, the stories of their 
exploits and their sufferings became household 
legends, and they turned the furrows and drove 
the cattle to pasture just as in the " old colony 
times." 

Their furloughs were equivalent to a full 
60 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

discharge, for on the 3d of September the defi- 
nitive treaty was signed, and the country was at 
peace. On the 3d of November the Departure of 
army was formally disbanded, and on troops^Nov. 
the 25th of that month Sir Guy 2.5, 1783 

Cacletaa!sarm.y-eJ3a barked from New York. 

Small British garrisons still remained In tlie 
frontier posts of Ogdensburg, Oswego, Niagara, 
Erie, Sandusky, Detroit, and Mackinaw, but it 
was understood that these places were to be 
promptly surrendered to the United States. 
On the 4th of December a barge waited at the 
South Ferry in New York to carry General 
Washington across the river to Paulus Hook. -. 
He was going to Annapolis, where Congress - 
was in session, in order to resign his command. 
At Fraunces's Tavern, near the ferry, he took 
lea_ve_of_t]ie_ii&:ers who so long had shared his 
labours. One after another they embraced their 
beloved commander, while there were few dry 
eyes in the company. They followed him to 
the ferry, and watched the departing boat with 
hearts too full for words, and then in solemn 
silence returned up the street. At Philadelphia 
he handed to the comptroller of the treasury a 
neatly written manuscript, containing an accu- 
rate statement of his expenses in the public 
service since the day when he took command 
of the army. The sums which Washington had 
thus spent out of his private fortune amounted 
61 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

to $64,315. For his personal services he de- 
clined to take any pay. At noon of the 23d, 
in the presence of Congress and of a throng of 
ladies and gentlemen at Annapolis, the great 
Washington general gave up his command, and 
command, rcquestcd as an " indulgence " to be 
Dec. 23 allowed to retire into private life. 

General Mifflin, who during the winter of Val- 
ley Forge had conspired with Gates to under- 
mine the confidence of the people in Wash- 
ington, was now president of Congress, and it 
was for him to make the reply. " You retire," 
said Mifflin, "from the theatre of action with 
the blessings of your fellow-citizens, but the 
glory of your virtues will not terminate with 
your military command; it will continue to ani- 
mate remotest ages." The next morning Wash- 
ington hurried away to spend Christmas at his 
pleasant home at Mount Vernon, which, save 
for a few hours in the autumn of 178 1, he had 
not set eyes on for more than eight years. His 
estate had suffered from his long absence, and 
his highest ambition was to devote himself to 
its simple interests. To his friends he offered 
unpretentious hospitality. " My manner of 
living is plain," he said, "and I do not mean 
to be put out of it. A glass of wine and a bit 
of mutton are always ready, and such as will be 
content to partake of them are always welcome. 
Those who expect more will be disappointed." 
62 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

To Lafayette he wrote that he was now about 
to solace himself with those tranquil enjoyments 
of which the anxious soldier and the weary- 
statesman know but little. " I have not only 
retired from all public employments, but I am 
retiring within myself, and shall be able to view 
the solitary walk and tread the paths of private 
life with heartfelt satisfaction. Envious of none, 
I am determined to be pleased with all ; and 
this, my dear friend, being the order of my 
march, I will move gently down the stream of 
life until I sleep with my fathers.'* 

In these hopes Washington was to be disap- 
pointed. " All the world is touched by his re- 
publican virtues," wrote Luzerne to Vergennes, 
" but it will be useless for him to try to hide 
himself and live the life of a private man : he 
will always be the first citizen of the United 
States." It indeed required no prophet to fore- 
tell that the American people could not long 
dispense with the services of this greatest of 
citizens. Washington had already put himself 
most explicitly on record as the leader of the 
men who were urging the people of the United 
States toward the formation of a more perfect 
union. The great lesson of the war had not 
been lost on him. Bitter experience of the evils 
attendant upon the weak government of the 
Continental Congress had impressed upon his 
mind the urgent necessity of an immediate and 

63 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

thorough reform. On the 8th of June, in view 
of the approaching disbandment of the army, 
he had addressed to the governors and presi- 
dents of the several states a circular letter, which 
he wished to have regarded as his legacy to the 
American people. In this letter he insisted upon 
four things as essential to the very existence of 
the United States as an independent power. 
His*' lee- First, there must be an indissoluble 
acy"tothe union of all the states under a single 

American r i i i • i 

people, rederal government, which must pos- 

june 8, 1783 gggg ^i^g power of enforcing its decrees ; 
for without such authority it would be a gov- 
ernment only in name. Secondly, the debts 
incurred bv Congress for the purpose of carry- 
ing on the war and securing independence must 
be paid to the uttermost farthing. Thirdly, 
the militia system must be organized through- 
out the thirteen states on uniform principles. 
Fourthly, the people must be willing to sacrifice, 
if need be, some of their local interests to the 
common weal ; they must discard their local 
prejudices, and regard one another as fellow 
citizens of a common country, with interests in 
the deepest and truest sense identical. 

The grandeur of Washington's character, his 
heroic services, and his utter disinterestedness 
had given him such a hold upon the people as 
few statesmen known to history have ever pos- 
sessed. The noble and sensible words of his 

64 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

circular letter were treasured up in the minds of 
all the best people in the country, and when the 
time for reforming the weak and disorderly gov- 
ernment had come it was again to Washington 
that men looked as their leader and guide. But 
that time had not yet come. Only through the 
discipline of perplexity and tribulation could the 
people be brought to realize the indispensable 
necessity of that indissoluble union of which 
Washington had spoken. Thomas Paine was 
sadly mistaken when, in the moment of exulta- 
tion over the peace, he declared that the trying 
time was ended. The most trying time of alP 
was just beginning. It is not too much to say 
that the period of five years following the peace 
of 1783 was the most critical moment in all thej 
history of the American people. The dangers 
from which we were saved in 1788 were even 
greater than the dangers from which we were 
saved in 1865. In the War of Secession the 
love of union had come to be so strong that 
thousands of men gave up their lives for it as 
cheerfully and triumphantly as the martyrs of 
older times, who sang their hymns of 

1 -1 1 • n 1 -1 Absence of 

praise even while their nesh was with- a sentiment 
ering in the relentless flames. In 1783 1~"' 
the love of union, as a sentiment for danger of 
which men would fight, had scarcely "^^^ ^ 
come into existence among the people of these 
states. The souls of the men of that day had 

6s 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

not been thrilled by the immortal eloquence of 
Webster, nor had they gained the historic ex- 
perience which gave to Webster's words their 
meaning and their charm. They had not gained 
control of all the fairest part of the continent, 
with domains stretching more than three thou- 
sand miles from ocean to ocean, and so situated 
in geographical configuration and commercial 
relations as to make the very idea of disunion 
absurd, save for men in whose minds fanaticism 
for the moment usurped the place of sound 
judgment. The men of 1783 dwelt in a long^ 
straggling series of republics, fringing the At- 
lantic coast, bordered on the north and south 
and west by two European powers whose hos- 
tility they had some reason to dread. But nine 
years had elapsed since, in the first Continental 
Congress, they had begun to act consistently 
and independently in common, under the severe 
pressure of a common fear and an immediate 
necessity of action. Even under such circum- 
stances the war had languished and come nigh 
to failure simply through the difficulty of insur- 
ing concerted action. Had there been such a 
government that the whole powder of the thir- 
teen states could have been swiftly and vigor- 
ously wielded as a unit, the British, fighting at 
>• such disadvantage as they did, might have been 
driven to their ships in less than a year. The 
length of the war and its worst hardships had 
66 



r 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

been chiefly due to want of organization. Con-« 
gress had ste adily deci iaed-in_fiower and in re- 
spectability ; it was much^weaker at th e_end of 
the war than at the Beginning; and there was 
reason to fear that as soon as the common pres- 
sure was removed the need for concerted action 
would quite cease to be felt, and the scarcely 
formed Union would break into pieces.* There 
was the greater reason for such a fear in that, 
while no strong sentiment had as yet grown up 
in favour of union, there was an intensely power' 
ful sentiment in favour of local self-government. 
This feeling was scarcely less strong as between 
states like Connecticut and Rhode Island, or 
Maryland and Virginia, than it was between 
Aj:hens and Megara, Argos and Sparta, in the 
great days of Grecian history. A most whole- 
some feeling it was, and one which needed not 
so much to be curbed as to be guided in the 
right direction. It was a feeling which was shared 
by some of the foremost Revolutionary leaders, 
such as Samuel Adams and Richard Henry Lee. 
But unless the most profound and delicate 
statesmanship should be forthcoming, to take 
this sentiment under its guidance, there was 
much reason to fear that the release from the 
common adhesion to Great Britain would end 
in setting up thirteen little republics, ripe for 
endless squabbling, like the republics of ancient 
Greece and mediaeval Italy, and ready to become 
67 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

the prey of England and Spain, even as Greece 
became the prey of Macedonia. 

As such a lamentable result was dreaded by 
Washington, so by statesmen in Europe it was 
generally expected, and by our enemies it was 
eagerly hoped for. Josiah Tucker, Dean of 
Gloucester, was a far-sighted man in many 
things ; but he said, " As to the future gran- 
deur of America, and its being a rising empire 
under one head, whether republican or monar- 
chical, it is one of the idlest and most vision- 
ary notions that ever was conceived even by 
writers of romance. The mutual antipathies and 
clashing interests of the Americans, their dif- 
ference of governments, habitudes, and man- 
ners, indicate that they will have no centre of 
union and no common interest. They never 
can be united into one compact empire under 
any species of government whatever ; a dis- 
united ^^eople till the end of time, suspicious 
and distrustful of each other, they will be di- 
vided and subdivided into little commonwealths 
or principalities, according to natural bound- 
aries, by great bays of the sea, and by vast 
rivers, lakes, and ridges of mountains." Such 
were the views of a liberal-minded philosopher 
who bore us no ill-will. George III. said offi- 
cially that he hoped the Americans would not 
suffer from the evils which in history had always 
followed the throwing off of monarchical gov- 
68 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

ernment : which meant, of course, that he hoped 
they would suffer from such evils. He believed 
we should get int6 such a snarl that the several 
states, one after another, would repent^and beg 
on thejr knees to b e taken back into the British 
empire. Frederick of Prussia, though friendly 
to the Americans, argued that the mere extent 
of country from Maine to Georgia would suf- 
fice either to break up the Union, or to make 
a monarchy necessary. No republic, he said, 
had ever long existed on so great a ^^^^^ 
scale. The Roman republic had been historic 
transforme d int o-a-despotism mainly ^"^"^'^^ 
by the excessive enlargement of its area. It 
was only little states,"like Venice, Switzerland, 
and Holland, that could maintain a republican 
government. Such arguments were common 
enough a century ago, but they overlooked 
three essential differences between the Roman 
republic and the United States. The Roman 
republic in Caesar's time comprised peoples dif- 
fering widely in blood, in speech, and in de- 
gree of civilization ; it was perpetually threat- 
ened on all its frontiers by powerful enemies ; 
and representative assemblies were unknown to 
it. The only free government of which the 
Roman knew anything was that of the pri- 
mary assembly or town meeting. On the other 
hand, the people of the United States were 
all English in speech, and mainly English in 

69 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

blood. The differences in degree of civiliza- 
tion between such states as Massachusetts and 
North Carolina were considerable, but in com- 
parison with such differences as those between 
Attika and Lusitania they might well be called 
slight. The attacks of savages on the frontier 
were cruel and annoying, but never since the 
time of King Philip had they seemed to threaten 
the existence of the white man. A very small 
military establishment was quite enough to deal 
with the Indians. And to crown all, the Amer- 
ican people were thoroughly familiar with the 
principle of representation, having practised it 
on a grand scale for more than five centuries 
in England and America. The governments 
of the thirteen states were all similar, and the 
political ideas of one were perfectly intelligible 
to all the others. It was essentially fallacious, 
therefore, to liken the case of the United States 
to that of ancient Rome. 

But there was another feature of the case 
which was quite hidden from the men of 1783. 
Just before the assembling of the first Con- 
tinental Congress James Watt had completed 
his steam-engine ; in the summer of 1787, while 
the Federal Convention was sitting at Phila- 
delphia, John Fitch launched his first steamboat 
on the Delaware River; and Stephenson's in- 
vention of the locomotive was to follow in less 
than half a century. Even with all other con- 
70 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

ditions favourable, It is doubtful if the Ameri- 
can Union could have been preserved to trie 
present time without the railroad. But for the 
mihtary aid of railroads our government would 
hardly have succeeded in putting down the 
rebellion of the southern states. In the debates 
on the Oregon Bill in the United influence 
States Senate in 1843, the idea that ^ff^\^''^ ^ 

' ^ ^ . and teiegrapn 

we could ever have an interest in so upon perpe- 

^ r^ 111 tuity of the 

remote a country as Oregon was loudly American 
ridiculed by some of the members. It U"'"" 
would take ten months — said George McDuffie, 
the very able senator from South Carolina — for 
representatives to get from that territory to the 
District of Columbia and back again. Yet since 
the building of railroads to the Pacific coast, we 
can go from Boston to the capital of Oregon in 
much less time than it took John Hancock to 
make the journey from Boston to Philadel- 
phia. Railroads and telegraphs have made our 
vast country, both for political and for social 
purposes, more snug and compact than little 
Switzerland was in the Middle Ages or New 
England a century ago. 

At the time of our Revolution the difficulties * 
of travelling formed an important social obsta-. 
cle to the union of the states. In our time the 
persons who pass in a single day between New 
York and Boston by six or seven distinct lines 
of railroad and steamboat are numbered bv 
71 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

thousands. In 1783 two stage-coaches were 
enough for all the travellers, and nearly all the 
freight besides, that went between these two 
cities, except such large freight as went by sea 
around Cape Cod. The journey began at three 
o'clock in the morning. Horses were changed 
every twenty miles, and if the roads were in 
good condition some forty miles would be made 
Difficulty by ten o'clock in the evening. In bad 
a^hundred"^ weather, when the passengers had to 
years ago get down and lift the clumsy wheels 
out of deep ruts, the progress was much slower. 
The loss of life from accidents, in proportion 
to the number of travellers, was much greater 
than it has ever been on the railway. Broad 
rivers like the Connecticut and Housatonic had 
no bridges. To drive across them in winter, 
when they were solidly frozen over, was easy ; 
and in pleasant summer weather to cross in 
a rowboat was not a dangerous undertaking. 
But squalls at some seasons and floating ice at 
others were things to be feared. More than 
one instance is recorded where the boats were 
crushed and passengers drowned, or saved only 
by scrambling upon ice-floes. After a week or 
ten days of discomfort and danger the jolted 
and jaded traveller reached New York. Such 
was a journey in the most highly civilized part 
of the United States. The case was still worse 
in the South, and it was not so very much 
72 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

better in England and France. In one respect 
the traveller in the United States fared better 
than the traveller in Europe : there was less 
danger from highwaymen. 

Such being the difficulty of travelling, people 
never made long journeys save for very im- 
portant reasons. Except in the case of the sol 
diers, most people lived and died without ever 
having seen any state but their own. And as 
the mails were irregular and uncertain, and the 
rates of postage very high, people heard from 
one another but seldom. Commercial dealings 
between the different states were inconsiderable. 
The occupation of the people wa^ chiefly agri- 
culture. Cities were few and small, and each 
little district for the most part supported itself. 
Under such circumstances the different parts 
of the country knew little about each other, 
and local prejudices were intense. It was not 
simply free Massachusetts and slave- Local jeai- 
holding South Carolina, or English «"^!^\^"^ 
Connecticut and Dutch New York, an inherit- 
that misunderstood and ridiculed each pHmevai" 
the other ; but even between such s^^agery 
neighbouring states as Connecticut and Massa- 
chusetts, both of them thoroughly English and 
Puritan, and in all their social conditions almost 
exactly alike, it used often to be said that there 
was no love lost. These unspeakably stupid 
and contemptible local antipathies are inherited 
73 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

by civilized men from that far-off time when 
the clan system prevailed over the face of the 
earth, and the hand of every clan was raised 
against its neighbours. They are pale and 
evanescent survivals from the universal primi- 
tive warfare, and the sooner they die out from 
human society the better for every one. They 
should be stigmatized and frowned down upon 
every fit occasion, just as we frown upon swear- 
ing as a symbol of anger and contention. But 
the only thing which can finally destroy them 
is the widespread and unrestrained intercourse 
of different groups of people in peaceful social 
and commercial relations. The rapidity with 
which this process is now going on is the most 
encouraging of all the symptoms of our mod- 
ern civilization. But a century ago the progress 
made in this direction had been relatively small, 
and it v/as a critical moment for the American 
people. 

The thirteen states, as already observed, had 
worked in concert for only nine years, during 
which their cooperation had been feeble and 
halting. But the several state governments had 
been in operation since the first settlement of 
the country, and were regarded with intense 
loyalty by the people of the states. Under the 
royal governors the local political life of each 
state had been vigorous and often stormy, as 
befitted communities of the sturdy descendants 
74 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

of English freemen. The legislative assembly 
of each state had stoutly defended its liberties 
against the encroachments of the governor. In 
the eyes of the people it was the only power on 
earth competent to lay taxes upon them, it was 
as supreme in its own sphere as the British 
Parliament itself, and in behalf of this rooted 
conviction the people had gone to war and won 
their independence from England. During the 
war the people of all the states, except Con- 
necticut and Rhode Island, had carefullv re- 
modelled their governments, and in the per- 
formance of this work had withdrawn many of 
their ablest statesmen from the Con- Conservative 



character 



tinental Congress ; but except for the \^^l^^ 
expulsion of the royal and proprietary Revolution 
governors, the work had in no instance been 
revolutionary in its character. It was not so 
much that the American people gained an in- 
crease of freedom by their separation from Eng- 
land, as that they kept the freedom they had 
always enjoyed, that freedom which was the 
inalienable birthright of Englishmen, but which 
George III. had foolishly sought to impair, t 
The American Revolution was therefore in no 
respect destructive. It was the most conserva- 
tive revolution known to history, thoroughly 
English in conception from beginning to end. 
It had no likeness whatever to the terrible 
popular convulsion which soon after took place ^ 

75 



r 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

in France. The mischievous doctrines of Rous- 
seau had found few readers and fewer admirers 
among the Americans. The principles upon 
which their revolution was conducted were 
those of Sidney and Locke. In remodelling 
the state governments, as in planning the union 
of the states, the precedents followed and the 
principles applied were almost purely English. 
We must now pass in review the principal 
changes wrought in the several states, and we 
shall then be ready to consider the general 
structure of the Confederation, and to describe 
the remarkable series of events which led to the 
adoption of our Federal Constitution. 

It will be remembered that at the time of the 
Declaration of Independence there were three 
kinds of government in the colonies. Connecti- 
cut and Rhode Island had always been true 
republics, with governors and legislative assem- 
blies elected by the people. Pennsylvania, 
Delaware, and Maryland presented the appear- 
ance of limited hereditary monarchies. Their 
assemblies were chosen by the people, but the 
lords proprietary appointed their governors, or 
State gov- in some instances acted as gover- 
ernments ^^^^ thcmselvcs. In Marvland the 

remodelled ; - ^ 

assemblies officc of lord proprietary was heredi- 

f °om cob- tary in the Calvert family; in Dela- 

niai times ware and Pennsylvania, which, though 

distinct commonwealths with separate legis- 

76 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

fatures, had the same executive head, it was 
hereditary in th^ Penn family. The other 
eight colonies were vice-royalties, with gover- 
nors appointed by the king, while in all alike 
the people elected the legislatures. Accord- 
ingly, in Connecticut and Rhode Island no 
change was made necessary by the Revolution, 
beyond the mere omission of the king*s name 
from legal documents ; and their charters, which 
dated from the middle of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, continued to do duty as state constitu- A 
tions till far into the nineteenth. During the 
Revolutionary War all the other states framed 
new constitutions, but in most essential respects 
they took the old colonial charters for their 
model. The popular legislative body remained 
unchanged even in its name. In North Caro- 
lina its supreme dignity was vindicated in its 
title of the House of Commons ; in Virginia it 
was called the House of Burgesses ; in most of 
the states the House of Representatives. The 
members were chosen each year, except in South 
Carolina, where they served for two years. In 
the New England states they represented the 
townships, in other states the counties. In all 
the states except Pennsylvania a property quali- 
fication was required of them. 

In addition to this House of Representatives 
all the legislatures except those of Pennsylvania 
and Georgia contained a second or upper house 

77 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

known as the Senate. The origin of the senate 
is to be found in the governor's council of 
Origin of colonial timcs, just as the House of 
the senates Lords is desccndcd from the Witen- 
agemot or council of great barons summoned 
by the Old-English kings. The Americans had 
been used to having the acts of their popular 
assemblies reviewed by a council, and so they 
retained this revisory body as an upper house. 
A higher property qualification was required 
than for membership of the lower house, and, 
except in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and 
South Carolina, the term of service was longer. 
In Maryland senators sat for five years, in 
Virginia and New York for four years, else- 
where for two years. In some states they were 
chosen by the people, in others by the lower 
house. In Maryland they were chosen by a 
college of electors, thus affording a precedent 
for the method of electing the chief magistrate 
of the Union under the Federal Constitution. 

Governors were unpopular in those days. 
There was too much flavour of royalty and 
high prerogative about them. Except in the 
two republics of Rhode Island and Connecti- 
cut, American political history throughout the 
eighteenth century was chiefly the record of 
interminable squabbles between governors and 
legislatures, down to the moment when the de- 
tested agents of royalty were clapped into jail, 
78 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

or took refuge behind the bulwarks of a British 
seventy-four. Accordingly, the new constitu- 
tions were very chary of the powers ^ 

^ J r Governors 

to be exercised by the governor. In viewed with 
Pennsylvaoiia^nd Delaware, in New ^"^p'^^°" 
Hampshire and Massachusetts, the governor 
was at first replaced by an executive council, 
and the president of this council was first magis- 
trate and titular ruler of the state. His dignity 
was imposing enough, but his authority was 
merely that of a chairman. The other states 
had governors chosen by the legislatures, except 
in New York, where the governor was elected 
by the people. No one was eligible to the ofBce 
of governor who did not possess a specified 
amount of property. In most of the states the 
governor could not be reelected, he had no veto 
upon the acts of the legislature, nor any power 
of appointing officers. In 1780, in a new con- 
stitution drawrf up by James Bowdoin and the 
two Adamses, Massachusetts led the way in the 
construction of a more efficient executive depart- 
ment. The president was replaced by a gover- 
nor elected annually by the people, and endowed 
with the power of appointment and a suspen- 
sory veto. The first governor elected under 
this constitution was John Hancock. In 1783 
New Hampshire adopted a similar constitution. 
In 1790 Pennsylvania added an upper house 
to its legislature, and vested the executive power 
79 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

in a governor elected by the people for a term 
of three years, and twice reeligible. He was 
entrusted with the power of appointment to 
offices, with a suspensory veto, and with the 
royal prerogative of reprieving or pardoning 
criminals. In 1792 similar changes were made 
in Delaware. In 1789 Georgia added the upper 
house to its legislature, and about the same 
time in several states the governor's powers 
were enlarged. 

Thus the various state governments were 
repetitions on a small scale of what was then 
supposed to be the triplex government of Eng- 
land, with its King, Lords, and Commons. The 
governor answered to the king with his dignity 
curtailed by election for a short period, and by 
narrowly limited prerogatives. The senate an- 
swered to the House of Lords, except in being 
a representative and not a hereditary body. It 
was supposed to represent more especially that 
part of the community which was possessed of 
most wealth and consideration ; and in several 
states the senators were apportioned with some 
reference to the amount of taxes paid by differ- 
ent parts of the state. The senate of New York, 
in direct imitation of the House of Lords, was 
made a supreme court of errors. On the other 
hand, the assembly answered to the House of 
Commons, save that its power was limited by 
the senate to a much greater degree than the 
80 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

power of the House of Commons is limited by 
the House of Lords. But this peculiarity of the 
British Constitution was not well understood a 
century ago ; and the misunderstanding, as we 
shall hereafter see, exerted a serious influence 
upon the form of our federal government, as 
well as upon the constitutions of the several 
states. 

In all the thirteen states the common law of 
England remained in force, as it does to this day- 
save where modified by statute. British and 
colonial statutes made prior to the Revolution 
continued also in force unless expressly repealed. 
The system of civil and criminal courts, the 
remedies in common law and equity, the forms 
of writs, the functions of justices of the peace, 
the courts of probate, all remained substantially 
unchanged. In Pennsylvania, Delaware, and 
New Jersey, the judges held office for a term of 
seven years; in all the other states they held 
office for life or during good behav- The 
iour. In all the states save Georgia J^^^^^^T 
they were appointed either by the governor 
or by the legislature. It was Georgia that in 
1 812 first set the pernicious example of elect- 
ing judges for short terms by the people,^ — a 
practice which is responsible for much of the 
degradation that the courts have suffered in 

^ In recent years Georgia has been one of the first states to 
abandon this bad practice. 

81 



\.^ 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

1 many of our states, and which will have to be 
abandoned before a proper administration of 
justice can ever be secured. 

In bestowing the suffrage, the new constitu- 
tions were as conservative as in all other re- 
spects. The general state of opinion in Amer- 
ica at that time, with regard to universal suffrage, 
was far more advanced than the general state of 
opinion in England, but it was less advanced 
than the opinions of such statesmen as Pitt and 
Shelburne and the Duke of Richmond. There 
was a truly English irregularity in the provisions 
which were made on this subject. In New 
Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and South 
The limited Carolina, all resident freemen who paid 
suffrage taxcs could vote. lu North Carolina 

all such persons could vote for members of the 
lower house, but in order to vote for senators a 
freehold of fifty acres was required. In Virginia 
none could vote save those who possessed such 
a freehold of fifty acres. To vote for governor 
or for senators in New York, one must possess 
a freehold of $250, clear of mortgage, and to 
vote for assemblymen one must either have a 
freehold of $50, or pay a yearly rent of $10. 
The pettiness of these sums was in keeping with 
the time when two daily coaches sufficed for the 
traffic between our two greatest commercial cit- 
ies. In Rhode Island an unincumbered freehold 
worth ^134 was required ; but in Rhode Island 

82 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

and Pennsylvania the eldest sons of qualified 
freemen could vote without payment of taxes. 
In all the other states the possession of a small 
amount of property, either real or personal, 
varying from $1^^ ^^ $200, was the necessary 
qualification for voting. Thus slowly and irreg- 
ularly did the states drift toward universal suf- 
frage ; but although the impediments in the way 
of voting were more serious than they seem to 
us in these days when the community is more 
prosperous and money less scarce, they were 
still not very great, and in the opinion of most 
conservative people they barely sufficed to ex- 
clude from the suffrage such shiftless persons 
as had no visible Interest in keeping down the 
taxes. 

At the time of the Revolution the succession 
to property was regulated in New York and the 
southern states by the English rule of primo- 
geniture. The eldest son took all. In New Jer- 
sey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the four New 
England states, the eldest son took a double 
share. It was Georgia that led the way in de- 
creeing the equal distribution of intestate pro- 
perty, both real and personal ; and be- , . . 

n 1 ?■ ^ , Abolition 

tween 1784 and 1796 the example was of primo- 
followed by all the other states. At Sr^'and 
the same time entails were either de- manorial 
finitely abolished, or the obstacles to p""^°^^ 
cutting them off were removed. In New York 

83 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

r- the manorial privileges of the great patroons 
were swept away. In Maryland the old ma- 
norial system had long been dying a natural 
death through the encroachments of the patri- 
archal system of slavery. The ownership of 
all ungranted lands within the limits of the thir- 
teen states passed from the Crown not to the 
Confederacy, but to the several state govern- 
ments. In Pennsylvania and Maryland such 
ungranted lands had belonged to the lords pro- 
prietary. They were now forfeited to the state. 
The Penn family was indemnified by Pennsyl- 
vania to the amount of half a million dollars ; 
but Maryland made no compensation to the 
Calverts, inasmuch as their claim was presented 
by an illegitimate descendant of the last Lord 

L 



Baltimore. 



The success of the American Revolution 
made it possible for the different states to take 
measures for the gradual abolition of slavery 
and the immediate abolition of the foreign 
slave-trade. On this great question the state of 
public opinion in America was more advanced 
than in England. So great a thinker as Edmund 
Burke, who devoted much thought to the sub- 
steps toward j^^^j came to the conclusion that slav- 
the abolition ery was an incurable evil, and that 
and the slave- thcrc was not the slightest hope that 
trade ^|^g trade in slaves could be stopped. 

The most that he thought could be done by 

84 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

judicious legislation was to mitigate the horrors 
which the poor negroes endured on board ship, 
or to prevent wives from being sold away from 
their husbands or children from their parents. 
Such was the outlook to one of the greatest 
political philosophers of modern times, just 
eighty-two years before the immortal proclama- 
tion of President Lincoln ! But how vast was 
the distance between Burke and his contem- 
porary Thurlow, who in 1799 poured out the 
vials of his wrath upon " the altogether misera- 
ble and contemptible " proposal to abolish the 
slave-trade. George IIL agreed with his chan- 
cellor, and resisted the movement for abolition 
with all the obstinacy of which his hard andJA. 
narrow nature was capable. In 1769 the Vir- 
ginia legislature had enacted that the further 
importation of negroes, to be sold into sla- 
very, should be prohibited. But George IIL 
instructed the governor to veto this act, and it 
was vfitoed. In Jefferson's first draft of the 
Declaration of Independence, this action of the 
king was made the occasion of a fierce de- 
nunciation of slavery, but in deference to the 
prejudices of South Carolina and Georgia the 
clause was struck out by Congress. When 
George IIL and his vetoes had been eliminated 
from the case, it became possible for the states 
to legislate freely on the subject. In 1776 

negro slaves were held in all the thirteen states, 
— _^5 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

but in all except South Carolina and Georgia 
there was a strong sentiment in favour of 
emancipation. In North Carolina, which con- 
tained a large Quaker population, and in which 
estates were small and were often cultivated by 
free labour, the pro-slavery feeling was never 
so strong as in the southernmost states. In 
Virginia all the foremost statesmen — Washing- 
ton, Jefferson, Lee, Randolph, Henry, Madi- 
son, and Mason — were opposed to the con- 
tinuance of slavery ; and their opinions were 
shared by many of the largest planters. For 
tobacco culture slavery did not seem so indis ■ 
pensable asTfor the raising of rice and indigo ; 
and in Virginia the negroes, half civilized by 
kindly treatment, were not regarded with dread 
by their masters, like the ill-treated and fero- 
cious blacks of South Carolina and Georgia. 
After 1808 the policy and the sentiments of 
Virginia underwent a marked change. The in- 
vention of the cotton-gin, taken .d connection 
with the sudden and prodigious development 
)f manufactures in England, greatly stimulated 
the growth of cotton in the ever-enlarging area 
of the Gulf States, and created an immense 
demand for slave-labour, just at the time when 
the importation of negroes from Africa came to 
an end. The breeding of slaves, to be sold to 
the planters of the Gulf states, then became 
such a profitable occupation in Virginia as 
86 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

entirely to change the popular feeling about 
slavery. But until 1808 Virginia sympathized 
with the anti-slavery sentiment which was grow- 
ing up in the northern states ; and the same 
was true of Maryland. Emancipation was, how- 
ever, much more easy to accomplish in the north, 
because the number of slaves was small, and 
economic circumstances distinctly favoured free 
labour. In the work of gradual emancipation 
the little state of Delaware led the way. In its 
new constitution of 1776 the further introduc- 
tion of slaves was prohibited, all restraints upon 
emancipation having already been removed. In 
the assembly of Virginia in 1778 a bill prohibit- 
ing the further introduction of slaves was moved 
and carried by Thomas Jefferson, and the same 
measure was passed in Maryland in 1783, while 
both these states removed all restraints upon 
emancipation. North Carolina was not ready 
to go quite so far, but in 1786 she sought to 
discourage the slave-trade by putting a duty of 
^5 per head on all negroes thereafter imported. 
New Jersey followed the example of Maryland 
and Virginia. Pennsylvania went farther. In 
1780 its assembly enacted that no more slaves 
should be brought in, and that all children of 
slaves born after that date should be free. The 
same provisions were made by New Hampshire 
in its new constitution of 1783, and by the 
assemblies of Connecticut and Rhode Island in 

87 



•i 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

1784. New York went farther still, and in 
1,785 enacted that all children of slaves there- 
aftei- born should not only be free, but should 
be admitted to vote on the same conditions as 
other freemen. In 1788 Virginia, which con- 
tained many free negroes, enacted that any per- 
son convicted of kidnapping or selling mto 
slavery any free person should suffer death on 
the gallows. Summing up all these facts, we 
see that within two years after the independence 
of the United States had been acknowledged 
by England, while the two southernmost states 
had done nothing to check the growth of 
slavery, North Carolina had discouraged the 
importation of slaves ; Virginia, Maryland, 
Delaware, and New Jersey had stopped such 
importation and removed all restraint upon 
emancipation ; and all the remaining states, 
except Massachusetts, had made gradual eman- 
cipation compulsory. Massachusetts had gone 
still farther. Before the Revolution the anti- 
slavery feeling had been very strong there, and 
cases brought into court for the purpose of 
testing the legality of slavery had been decided 
in favour of those who were opposed to the 
continuance of that barbarous institution. In 
1777 an American cruiser brought into the port 
of Salem a captured British ship with slaves on 
board, and these slaves were advertised for sale, 
but on complaint being made before the legis- 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

(ature they vyere set free. The new constitution 
of 1780 contained a declaration of rights which 
asserted that all men are born free and have an 
equal and inahenable right to defend their lives 
and liberties, to acquire property, and to seek 
and obtain safety and happiness. The supreme 
court presently decided that this clause worked 
the abolition of slavery, and accordingly Massa- 
chusetts was the first of American states, within 
the limits of the Union, to become in the full 
sense of the words a free commonwealth. Of 
the negro inhabitants, not more than six thou- 
sand in number, a large proportion had already 
for a long time enjoyed freedom ; and all were 
now admitted to the suffrage on the same terms 
as other citizens. 

By the revolutionary legislation of the states 
some progress was also effected in the direction 
of a more complete religious freedom. Pennsyl- 
vania and Delaware were the only states in 
which all Christian sects stood socially progress to- 
and politically on an equal footing, wardfreedom 
In Rhode Island all Protestants en- 
joyed equal privileges, but Catholics were de- 
barred from voting.^ In Massachusetts, New 

^ This exclusion of Catholics was contrary to the views of 
Roger WilHams and to the spirit of the Rhode Island charter, 
if not to its letter also. It was effected, nobody knows just 
how, by the interpolation of a disabling clause in the ** Act 
declaring the rights and privileges of his Majesty's subjects 

89 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

Hampshire, and Connecticut, the old Puritan 
Congregationalism was the established religion. 
The Congregational church was supported by 
taxes, and the minister, once chosen, kept his 
place for life or during good behaviour. He 
could not be got rid of unless formally investi- 
gated and dismissed by an ecclesiastical council. 
Laws against blasphemy, which were virtually 
laws against heresy, were in force in these three 
states. In Massachusetts, Catholic priests were 
liable to imprisonment for life. Any one who 
should dare to speculate too freely about the 
nature of Christ, or the philosophy of the plan 
of salvation, or to express a doubt as to the 
plenary inspiration of every word between the 
two covers of the Bible, was subject to fine and 

within this colony," which ends with the words, *' and that 
all men [professing Christianity and] of competent estates, 
and of civil conversation, who acknowledge and are obedient 
to the civil magistrate, though of different judgment in religious 
aifairs [Roman Catholics excepted], shall be admitted freemen, 
and shall have liberty to choose and be chosen officers in the 
colony, both military and civil." The first interpolation ex- 
cludes Jews, as the second excludes Catholics, whereas Wil- 
liams in his noble scheme of Christian fellowship included 
both Jews and Catholics. These interpolations were certainly 
made at some time between 1684 and 1705 ; probably about 
1 699. They are undoubtedly a symptom of the anti-Cathohc 
wave of feeling which followed the accession of William and 
Mary, when Catholic Jacobites were likely to be disloyal. 

/ They were repealed in 1783. See Greene's History of Rhodi 

\ Island, ii. 490-494. 

90 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

imprisonment. The tithing-man still arrested 
Sabbath-breakers and shut them up in the town- 
cage in the market-place ; he stopped all un- 
necessary riding or driving on Sunday, and 
haled people off to the meeting-house whether 
they would or not. Such restraints upon liberty 
were still endured by people who had dared and 
suffered so much for liberty's sake. The men 
of Boston strove hard to secure the repeal of 
these barbarous laws and the disestablishment 
of the Congregational church ; but they were 
outvoted by the delegates from the rural towns. 
The most that could be accomplished was the 
provision that dissenters might escape the church 
rate by supporting a church of their own. The 
nineteenth century was to arrive before church 
and state were finally separated in Massachu- 
setts. The new constitution of New Hampshire 
was similarly illiberal, and in Connecticut no 
change was made. Rhode Island nobly distin- 
guished herself by contrast when in 1783 she 
extended the franchise to Catholics. 

In the six states just mentioned the British 
government had been hindered by charter, and 
by the overwhelming opposition of the people, 
from seriously trying to establish the Episcopal 
church. The sure fate of any such mad experi- 
ment had been well illustrated in the time of 
Andros. In the other seven states there were 
no such insuperable obstacles. The church of 

91 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

England was maintained with languid acqui" 
escence in New York. By the Quakers and 
Presbyterians of New Jersey and North Caro- 
lina, as well as in half-Catholic, half-Puritan 
Maryland, its supremacy was unwillingly en- 
dured ; in the turbulent frontier commonwealth 
of Georgia it was accepted with easy contempt. 
Only in South Carolina and Virginia had the 
Church of England ever possessed any real hold 
upon the people. The Episcopal clergy of South 
Carolina, men of learning and high character, 
elected by their own congregations instead of 
being appointed to their livings by a patron, 
were thoroughly independent, and in the late 
war their powerful influence had been mainly 
exerted in behalf of the patriot cause. Hence, 
while they retained their influence after the close 
of the war, there was no difliculty in disestab- 
lishing the church. It felt itself able to stand 
without government support. As soon as the 
political separation from England was eflected, 
the Episcopal church was accordingly separated 
from the state, not only in South Carolina, but 
in all the states in which it had hitherto been 
upheld by the authority of the British govern- 
ment ; and in the constitutions of New Jersev, 
Georgia, and the two Carolinas, no less than in 
those of Delaware and Pennsylvania, it was ex- 
plicitly provided that no man should be obliged 
to pay any church rate or attend any religious 
91 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

service save according to his own free and un- 
hampered will. 

The case of Virginia was peculiar. At first 
the Church of England had taken deep root 
there because of the considerable immigration 
of members of the Cavalier party after the down- 
fall of Charles I. Most of the great statesmen 
of Virorinia in the Revolution — such as Wash- 
ington, Madison, Mason, Jefferson, Pendleton, 
Henry, the Lees, and the Randolphs ^, ^ , 

- ■' -' . '^ Church and 

— were descendants of Cavaliers and state in vh- 
members of the Church of England. ^^"^^ 
But for a long time the Episcopal clergy had 
been falling into discredit. Many of them were 
appointed by the British government and or- 
dained by the Bishop of London, and they were 
affected by the irreligious listiessness and the 
low moral tone of the English church in the 
eighteenth century. The Virginia legislature 
thought it necessary to pass special laws pro- 
hibiting these clergymen from drunkenness and 
riotous living. It was said that they spent more 
time in hunting foxes and betting on race-horses 
than in conducting religious services or visiting 
the sick ; and according to Bishop Meade, many 
dissolute parsons, discarded from the church 
in England as unworthy, were yet thought fit 
to be presented with livings in Virginia. To 
this general character of the clergy there were 
many exceptions. There were many excellent 
93 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

clergymen, especially among the native Virgin- 
ians, whose appointment depended to some ex- 
tent upon the repute in which they were held by 
their neighbours. But on the whole the system 
was such as to illustrate all the worst vices of 
a church supported by the temporal power. 
The Revolution achieved the discomfiture of a 
clergy already thus deservedly discredited. The 
parsons mostly embraced the cause of the crown, 
but failed to carry their congregations with 
them, and thus they found themselves arrayed 
in hopeless antagonism to popular sentiment in 
a state which contained perhaps fewer Tories in 
proportion to its population than any other of 
the thirteen. 

At the same time the Episcopal church itself 
had gradually come to be a minority in the 
commonwealth. For more than half a century 
Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, German Lutherans, 
English Quakers, and Baptists had been work- 
ing their way southward from Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey, and had settled in the fertile coun- 
try west of the Blue Ridge. Daniel Morgan, 
who had won the most brilliant battle of the 
Revolution, was one of these men, and sturdi- 
ness was a chief characteristic of most of them. 
So long as these frontier settlers served as a 
much needed bulwark against the Indians, the 
church saw fit to ignore them and let them 
build meeting-houses and carry on religious 
94 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

services as they pleased. But when the peril 
of Indian attack had been thrust westward into 
the Ohio valley, and these dissenting commu- 
nities had waxed strong and prosperous, the 
ecclesiastical party in the state undertook to 
lay taxes on them for the support of the Church 
of England, and to compel them to receive 
Episcopal clergymen to preach for them, to 
bless them in marriage, and to bury their dead. 
The immediate consequence was a revolt which 
not only overthrew the established church in 
Virginia, but nearly effected its ruin. The trou- 
bles began in 1768, when the Baptists had made 
their way into the centre of the state, and three 
of their preachers were arrested by the sheriff 
of Spottsylvania. As the indictment was read 
against these men for " preaching the gospel 
contrary to law," a deep and solemn voice in- 
terrupted the proceedings. Patrick Henrv had 
come on horseback many a mile over rough- 
est roads to listen to the trial, and this phrase, 
which savoured of the religious despotisms of 
old, was quite too much for him. " May it 
please your worships," he exclaimed, " what 
did I hear read ? Did I hear an expression that 
these men, whom your worships are about to 
try for misdemeanour, are charged with preach- 
ing the gospel of the Son of God ! " The 
shamefast silence which ensued was of ill omen 
for the success of an undertaking so unwel- 

95 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

come to the growing liberalism of the time. 
The zeal of the persecuted Baptists was pre- 
sently reinforced by the learning and the dialec- 
tic skill of the Presbyterian ministers. Unlike 
the Puritans of New England, these Scotch- 
Irish Presbyterians were in favour of the total 
separation of church from state. It was one of 
their cardinal principles that the civil magis- 
trate had no right to interfere in any way with 
matters of religion. By taking this broad ground 
they secured the powerful aid of Thomas Jef- 
ferson, and afterwards of Madison and Mason. 
The controversy went on through all the years 
of the Revolutionary War, while all Virginia, 
from the sea to the mountains, rang with ful- 
minations and arguments. In 1776 Jefferson 
and Mason succeeded in carrying a bill which 
released all dissenters from parish rates and 
legalized all forms of worship. At last in 1785, 
Jefferson's whilc Jeffcrson was in France, Madi- 

pveedom ^^" ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ crowning vic- 
Act, 1785 tory in the passage of his Religious 
Freedom Act, by which the Church of Eng- 
land was disestablished and all parish rates 
abolished, and still more, all religious tests were 
done away with. In this last respect Virginia 
came to the front among all the American 
states, as Massachusetts had come to the front 
in the abolition of negro slavery. Nearly all 
the states still imposed religious tests upon 

96 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

civil office-holders, from simply declaring a 
general belief in the infallibleness of the Bible 
to accepting the doctrine of the Trinity. The 
Virginia statute, which declared that " opinion 
in matters of religion shall in nowise diminish, 
enlarge, or affect civil capacities,'* was trans- 
lated into French and Italian, and was widely 
read and commented on in Europe. 

It is the historian's unpleasant duty to add 
that the victory thus happily won was ungen- 
erously followed up. Theological and political 
odium combined to overwhelm the Episcopal 
church in Virginia. The persecuted became per- 
secutors. It was contended that the property 
of the church, having been largely created by 
unjustifiable taxation, ought to be forfeited. In 
1802 its parsonages and glebe lands were sold, 
its parishes wiped out, and its clergy left with- 
out a calling. "A reckless sensualist," said Dr. 
Hawks, " administered the morning dram to 
his guests from the silver cup " used in the 
communion service. But in all this there is a 
manifest historic lesson. That it should have 
been possible thus to deal with the Episcopal 
church in Virginia shows forciblv the mori- 
bund condition into which it had been brought 
through dependence upon the extraneous aid 
of a political sovereignty from which the people 
of Virginia were severing their allegiance. The 
lesson is most vividly enhanced by the con- 

97 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

trast with the church of South Carolina, which, 
rooted in its own soil, was quite able to stand 
alone when government aid was withdrawn. In 
Virginia the church in which George Washing- 
ton was reared had so nearly vanished by the 
year 1830 that Chief Justice Marshall said it 
was folly to dream of reviving so dead a thing. 
Nevertheless, under the noble ministration of 
its great bishop, William Meade, the Episco- 
pal church in Virginia, no longer relying upon 
state aid, but trusting in the divine persuasive 
power of spiritual truth, was even then enter- 
ing upon a new life and beginning to exercise 
a most wholesome influence. 

The separation of the English church in 
America from the English crown was the oc- 
casion of a curious difficulty with regard to the 
ordination of bishops. Until after the Revo- 
lution there were no bishops of that church 
in America, and between 1783 and 1785 it was 
not clear how candidates for holy orders could 
receive the necessary consecration. In 1784 a 
young divinity student from Virginia, named 
Mason Weems, who had been studying for 
Mason somc time in England, applied to the 

^rs^muei Bishop of London for admission to 
Seabury holy ordcrs, but was rudely refused. 

Weems then had recourse to Watson, Bishop 
of LlandafF, author of the famous reply to Gib- 
bon. Watson treated him kindly and advised 

98 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

him to get a letter of recommendation from the 
governor of Maryland, but after this had been 
obtained he referred him to the Archbishop 
of Canterbury, who said that nothing could be 
done without the consent of Parliament. As 
the law stood, no one could be admitted into 
the ranks of the English clergy without taking 
the oath of allegiance and acknowledging the 
king of England as the head of the church. 
Weems then wrote to John Adams at the 
Hague, and to Franklin at Paris, to see if 
there were any Protestant bishops on the Con- 
tinent from whom he could obtain consecra- 
tion. A rather amusing diplomatic correspond- 
ence ensued, and finally the king of Denmark, 
after taking theological advice, kindly offered 
the services of a Danish bishop, who was to per- 
form the ceremony in Latin. Weems does not 
seem to have availed himself of this permission, 
probably because the question soon reached a 
more satisfactory solution.^ About the same 

1 It was this same Mason Weems that was afterward known 
in Virginia as Parson Weems, of Pohick parish, near Mount 
Vernon. See Magaxine of American History^ iii. 465-472; 
V. 85-90. At first an eccentric preacher. Parson Weems be- 
came an itinerant violin-player and book-peddler, and author 
of that edifying work. The Life of George Washingto?i, zvith 
Curious Anecdotes equally Honourable to Himself and Exem- 
plary to his Toung Countrymen. On the title-page the author 
describes himself as ** formerly rector of Mount Vernon Par- 
ish," — which Bishop Meade calls preposterous. The book 

99 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

time the Episcopal church in Connecticut sent 
one of its ministers, Samuel Seabury of New 
London, to England, to be ordained as bishop. 
The oaths of allegiance and supremacy stood 
as much in the way of the learned and famous 
minister as in that of the young and obscure 
student. Seabury accordingly appealed to the 
non-juring Jacobite bishops of the Episcopal 
November church of Scotland, and at length was 
14, 1784 duly ordained at Aberdeen as bishop 
of the diocese of Connecticut. While Seabury 
was in England, the churches in the various 
states chose delegates to a general convention, 
which framed a constitution for the " Protes- 
tant Episcopal Church of the United States of 
America." Advowsons were abolished, some 
parts of the liturgy were dropped, and the ten- 
ure of ministers, even of bishops, was to be 
during good behaviour. At the same time a 
friendly letter was sent to the bishops of Eng- 
land, urging them to secure, if possible, an act 
of Parliament whereby American clergymen 
might be ordained without taking the oaths 

is a farrago of absurdities, reminding one, alike in its text 
and its illustrations, of an overgrown English chap-book of 
the olden time. It has had an enormous sale, and has very- 
likely contributed more than any other single book toward 
forming the popular notion of Washington. It seems to have 
been this fiddling parson that first gave currency to the ever- 
lasting story of the cherry-tree and the little hatchet. 
100 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

of allegiance and supremacy. Such an act was 
obtained without much difficulty, and three 
American bishops were accordingly consecrated 
in due form. The peculiar ordination of Sea- 
bury was also recognized as valid by the gen- 
eral convention, and thus the Episcopal church 
in America was fairly started on its independ- 
ent career. 

This foundation of a separate episcopacy west 
of the Atlantic was accompanied by the further 
separation of the Methodists as a distinct reli- 
gious society. Although John Wesley regarded 
the notion of an apostolical succession as super- 
stitious, he had made no attempt to separate 
his followers from the national church. He 
translated the titles of " bishop " and " priest " 
from Greek into Latin and English, calling 
them " superintendent " and " elder," but he 
did not deny the king's headship. Meanwhile 
during the long period of his preaching there 
had begun to grow up a Methodist church in 
America. George Whitefield had come over 
and preached in Georgia in 1737, and in Mas- 
sachusetts in 1744, where he encountered much 
opposition on the part of the Puritan clergy. 
But the first Methodist church in America was 
founded in the city of New York in 1766. In 
1772 Wesley sent over Francis Asbury, a man 
of shrewd sense and deep religious feeling, to 
act as his assistant and representative in this 

lOI 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

country. At that time there were not more than 
a thousand Methodists, with six preachers, and 
Francis all thcse Were in the middle and 

tle^Mlthi southern colonies ; but within five 
dists years, largely owing to the zeal and elo- 

quence of Asbury, these numbers had increased 
sevenfold. At the end of the war, seeing the 
American Methodists cut loose from the Eng- 
lish establishment, Wesley in his own house at 
Bristol, with the aid of two presbyters, pro- 
ceeded to ordain ministers enough to make a 
presbytery, and thereupon set apart Thomas 
Coke to be " superintendent " or bishop for 
America. On the same day of November, 1784, 
on which Seabury was consecrated by the non- 
jurors at Aberdeen, Coke began preaching and 
baptizing in Maryland, in rude chapels built 
of logs or under the shade of forest trees. On 
Christmas Eve a conference assembled at Balti- 
more, at which Asbury was chosen bishop by 
some sixty ministers present, and ordained b} 
Coke, and the constitution of the Methodist 
church in America was organized. Among the 
poor white people of the southern states, and 
among the negroes, the new church rapidly ob- 
tained great sway ; and at a somewhat later date 
it began to assume considerable proportions in 
the north. 

Four years after this the Presbyterians, who 
were most numerous in the middle states, or- 
102 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

ganized their government in a general assembly, 
which was also attended by Congregationalist 
delegates from New England in the capacity of 
simple advisers. The theological difference be- 
tween these two sects was so slight that an 
alliance grew up between them, and outside of 
New England their names have come to be in- 
accurately used as if synonymous.^ Such a dif- 
ference seemed to vanish when confronted with 
the newer differences that began to spring up 
soon after the close of the Revolu- ^ ^ . 

rresbyten- 

tion. The revolt against the doctrine ans; Roman 
of eternal punishment was already be- 
ginning in New England, and among the learned 
and thoughtful clergy of Massachusetts the 
seeds of Unitarianism were germinating. The 
gloomy intolerance of an older time was begin- 
ning to yield to more enlightened views. In 
1789 the first Roman Catholic church in New 
England was dedicated in Boston. So great had 
been the prejudice against this sect that in 1784 
there were only 600 Catholics in all New Eng- 
land. In the four southernmost states, on the 
other hand, there were 2500 ; in New York 
and New Jersey there were 1700; in Delaware 
and Pennsylvania there were 7700 ; in Mary- 
land there were 20,000 ; while among the 
French settlements along the eastern bank of 

^ Even in Connecticut I have heard Congregationalists 
called Presbyterians, but never in Massachusetts. 
103 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

the Mississippi there were supposed to be 
nearly 12,000. In 1786 John Carroll, a cousin 
of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, was selected 
by the Pope as his apostolic vicar, and was 
afterward successively made bishop of Balti- 
more and archbishop of the United States. By 
1789 all obstacles to the Catholic worship had 
been done away with in all the states. 

In this brief survey of the principal changes 
wrought in the several states by the separation 
from England, one cannot fail to be struck with 
their conservative character. Things proceeded 
just as they had done from time immemorial 
with the English race. Forms of government 
were modified just far enough to adapt them to 
the new situation and no farther. The abolition 
of entails, of primogeniture, and of such few 
manorial privileges as existed, were useful re- 
forms of far less sweeping character than simi- 
lar changes would have been in England ; and 
they were accordingly effected with ease. Even 
the abolition of slavery in the northern states, 
where negroes were few in number and chiefly 
employed in domestic service, wrought nothing 
in the remotest degree resembling a social revo- 
lution. But nowhere was this constitutionally 
cautious and precedent-loving mode of proceed- 
ing more thoroughly exemplified than in the 
measures just related, whereby the Episcopal 
and Methodist churches were separated from 
104 



THE THIRTEEN COMMONWEALTHS 

the English establishment and placed upon an 
independent footing in the new world. From an- 
other point of view it may be observed . , 

,1,1 1 ' . , E-^cept in the 

that all these changes, except m the instance of 
instance of slavery, tended to assimi- JheTeThrnges 
late the states to one another in their were favour- 

.... , . , ... cT' r ^^^^ ^^ union 

political and social condition, bo tar 
as they went, these changes were favourable to 
union, — and this was perhaps especially true 
in the case of the ecclesiastical bodies, which 
brought citizens of different states into coopera- 
tion in pursuit of specific ends in common. 

At the same time this survey most forcibly 
reminds us how completely the legislation which 
immediately affected the daily domestic life of 
the citizen was the legislation of the single state 
in which he lived. In the various reforms just 
passed in review the United States government 
took no part, and could not from the nature of 
the case. Even to-day our national government 
has no power over such matters, and it is to be 
hoped it never will have. But at the present 
day our national government performs many 
important functions of common concern, which 
a century ago were scarcely performed at all. 
The organization of the single state was old in 
principle and well understood by everybody. 
It therefore worked easily, and such changes as 
those above described were brought about with 
little friction. On the other hand, the princi- 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

pies upon which the various relations of the 
states to each other were to be adjusted were 
not well understood. There was wide disagree- 
ment upon the subject, and the attempt to com- 
promise between opposing views was not at 
first successful. Hence, in the management of 
affairs which concerned the United States as a 
nation, we shall not find the central machinery 
working smoothly or quietly. We are about to 
traverse a period of uncertainty and confusion, 
in which it required all the political sagacity and 
all the good temper of the people to save the 
half-built ship of state from going to pieces on 
the rocks of civil contention. 



io6 



Ill 

THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

THAT some kind of union existed be- 
tween the states was doubted by no one. 
Ever since the assembling of the first 
Continental Congress in 1774 the thirteen com- 
monwealths had acted in concert, and sometimes 
most generously, as when Maryland and South 
Carolina had joined in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence without any crying grievances of their 
own, from a feeling that the cause of one should 
be the cause of all. It has sometimes been said 
that the Union was in its origin a league of sover- 
eign states, each of which surrendered a specific 
portion of its sovereignty to the federal gov- 
ernment for the sake of .the common welfare. 
Grave political arguments had been based upon 
this alleged fact, but such an account of the 
matter is not historically true. There never! 
was a time when Massachusetts or Virginia was 
an absolutely sovereign state like Holland or 
France. Sovereign over their own internal af- 
fairs they are to-day as they were at the time 
of the Revolution, but there was never a time 
when they presented themselves before other \ 
107 ' 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

nations as sovereign, or were recognized as 
isuch. Under the government of England be- 
fore the Revolution the thirteen commonwealths 
were independent of one another, and were held 
together, juxtaposed rather than united, only 
The several througli their allcgiancc to the Brit- 
states have ish crown. Had that allegiance been 

never enjoyed . • i i • n* ^ 

complete sov- mamtaincd there is no telling how 
ereignty Jong thcv might have gone on thus 

disunited ; and this, it seems, should be one of 
our chief reasons for rejoicing that the political 
connection w^th England was dissolved when 
it was. A permanent redress of grievances, and 
even virtual independence such as Canada now 
enjoys, we might perhaps have gained had we 
listened to Lord North's proposals after the 
surrender of Burgoyne ; but the formation of 
the Federal Union would certainly have been 
long postponed, and when we realize the gran- 
deur of the work which we are now doing in the 
world through the simple fact of such a union, 
we must believe that such an issue would have 
been unfortunate. However this may be, it is 
clear that until the connection with England 
was severed the thirteen commonwealths were 
not united, nor were they sovereign. It is also 
clear that in the very act of severing their con- 
nection with England these commonwealths 
entered into some sort of union which was 
incompatible with their absolute sovereignty 
108 



J 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

taken severally. It was not the people of New 
Hampshire, Massachusetts, and so on through 
the list, that declared their independence of 
Great Britain, but it was the representatives of 
the United States in Congress assembled, and 
speaking as a single body in the name of the 
whole. It was not the segments of the snake, 
but the creature in its integrity, that captured 
two British armies. 

Three weeks before the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was adopted. Congress appointed a 
committee to draw up the " articles of confed- 
eration and perpetual union,'* by which the 
sovereignty of the several states was expressly 
limited and curtailed in many important partic- 
ulars. This committee had finished its work 
by the I2th of July, but the articles were not 
adopted by Congress until the autumn of 1777, 
and they were not finally put into operation un- 
til the spring of 178 1. During this inchoat^ 
period of union the action of the United States ^ 
was that of a confederation in which some por- 
tion of the several sovereignties was understood 
to be surrendered to the whole. It was the busi- 
ness of the articles to define the precise nature 
and extent of this surrendered sovereignty which 
no state by itself ever exercised. In the mean 
time this sovereignty, undefined in nature and 
extent, was exercised, as well as circumstances 
permitted, by the Continental Congress. ^ ^ ^ 
109 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

A most remarkable body was this Continental 
Congress. For the vicissitudes through which 
The conti- ^^ passed, there is perhaps no other 
nentai Con- revolutionary body, save the Long 
Ixtmordinary Parliament, which can be compared 

character ^jj.|^ 'j.^ Pqj. j^-g QYlgm We mUSt loolc 

back to the committees of correspondence de- 
vised by Jonathan Mayhew, Samuel Adams, and 
Dabney Carr. First assembled in^r274 to meet 

/an emicrgency which was generally believed to 
be only temporary, it continued to sit for nearly 
seven years before its powers were ever clearly 
defined ; and during those seven years it exer- 
cised some of the highest functions of sover- 
eignty which are possible to any governing body. 
It declared the independence of the United 
States ; it contracted an offensive and defensive 
alliance with France ; it raised and organized a 
Continental army ; it borrowed large sums of 
money, and pledged what the lenders under- 
stood to be the national credit for their repay- 
ment ; it issued an inconvertible paper currency, 
granted letters of marque, and built a navy. All 
this it did in the exercise of what in later times 
would have been called " implied war powers," 

^ and its authority rested upon the general ac- 
quiescence in the purposes for which it acted 
and in the measures which it adopted. Under 
such circumstances its functions were very inef- 
^ficiently performed. But the articles of confed- 

no 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

eratlon, which iniySi defined its powerSjServed 
at the same time to limit them ; so that for the 
remaining eight years of its existence the Con- 
tinental Congress grew weaker and weaker, until 
it was swept away to make room for a more 
efficient government. 

John Dickinson is supposed to have been the 
principal author of the articles of confederation ; 
but as the work of the committee was _, 

The articles 

done in secret and has never been of confedera- 
reported, the point cannot be deter- ^'°" 
mined. In November, 1777, Congress sent the 
articles to the several state legislatures, with a 
circular letter recommending them as containing 
the only plan of union at all likely to be adopted. 
In the course of the next fifteen months the 
articles were ratified by all the states except 
Maryland, which refused to sign until the states 
laying claim to the northwestern lands, and es- 
pecially Virginia, should surrender their claims 
to the confederation. We shall by and by see, 
when we come to explain this point in detail, 
that from this action of Maryland there flowed 
beneficent consequences that were little dreamed 
of. It was first in the great chain of events which 
led directly to the formation of the Federal 
Union. Having carried her point, Maryland 
ratified the articles on the first day of March, 
178 1 ; and thus in the last and most brilliant 
period of the war, while Greene was leading 
III 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

Cornwallis on his fatalxhase across North Caro- 
Hna, the confederation proposed at the time of 
the Declaration of Independence was finally 
consummated. 
r-^ According to the language of the articles, the 
1 states entered into a firm league of friendship 
with each other ; and in order to secure and 
perpetuate such friendship, the freemen of each 
state were entitled to all the privileges and 
immunities of freemen in all the other states. 
Mutual extradition of criminals was established, 
and in each state full faith and credit was to be 
given to the records, acts, and judicial proceed- 
ings of every other state. This universal inter- 
citizenship was what gave reality to the nascent 
and feeble Union. In all the common business 
relations of life, the man of New Hampshire 
could deal with the man of Georgia on an equal 
footing before the law. But this was almost the 
only effectively cohesive provision in the whole 
instrument. Throughout the remainder of the 
articles its language was largely devoted to 
reconciling the theory that the states were sev- 
erally sovereign with the visible fact that they 
were already merged to some extent in a larger 
political body. The sovereignty of this larger 
body was vested in the Congress of delegates 
appointed yearly by the states. No state was 
to be represented by less than two or more 
than seven members ; no one could be a dele- 

112 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

gate for more than three years out of every 
six ; and no delegate could hold any salaried 
office under the United States. As in colonial 
times the states had, to preserve their self-gov- 
ernment, insisted upon paying their governors 
and judges, instead of allowing them to be paid 
out of the royal treasury, so now the delegates 
in Congress were paid by their own states. In 
determining questions in Congress, each state 
had one vote, without regard to population ; 
but a bare majority was not enough to carry 
any important measure. Not only for such 
extraordinary matters as wars and treaties, but 
even for the regular and ordinary business of 
raising money to carry on the government, not 
a single step could be taken without the con- 
sent of at least nine of the thirteen states ; and 
this provision well-nigh sufficed of itself to 
block the wheels of federal legislation. The 
Congress assembled each year on the first 
Monday of November, and could not adjourn 
for a longer period than six months. During 
its recess the continuity of government was 
preserved by an executive committee, consisting 
of one delegate from each state, and known as 
the " committee of the states." Saving such 
matters of warfare or treaty as the public in- 
terest might require to be kept secret, all the 
proceedings of Congress were entered in a jour- 
nal, to be published monthly ; and the yeas 

113 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

and nays must be entered should any delegate 
request it. The executive departments of war, 
finance, and so forth were entrusted at first to 
committees, until experience soon showed the 
necessity of single heads. There was a presi- 
dent of Congress, who, as representing the 
dignity of the United States, was, in a certain 
sense, the foremost person in the country, but 
he had no more power than any other dele- 
gate. Of the fourteen presidents between 1774 
and 1789, perhaps only Randolph, Hancock, 
and Laurens are popularly remembered in that 
capacity ; Jay, St. Clair, Mifflin, and Lee are 
remembered for other things; Hanson, Grif- 
fin, Gorham, and Boudinot are scarcely remem- 
bered at all, save by the student of American 
history. 

Between the Congress thus constituted and 
the several state governments the attributes of 
•sovereignty were shared in such a way as to 
produce a minimum of result with a maximum 
of effort. The states were prohibited from 
keeping up any naval or military force, except 
militia, or from entering into any treaty or alli- 

/ ance, either with a foreign power or between 
themselves, without the consent of Congress. 
No state could engage in war except by way of 
defence against a sudden Indian attack. Con- 

f gress had the sole right of determining on peace 
and war, of sending and receiving ambassadors, 
114 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP ^^^^ 

of making treaties, of adjudicating all disputes 
between the states, of managing Indian affairs, 
and of regulating the value of coin and fixing 
the standard of weights and measures. Con- 
gress took control of the post-office on condi- 
tion that no more revenue should be raised 
from postage than should suffice to discharge 
the expenses of the service. Congress con- 
trolled the army, but was provided with no 
means of raising soldiers save through requi- 
sitions upon the states, and it could only ap- 
point officers above the rank of colonel ; the 
organization of regiments was left entirely in 
the hands of the states. The traditional and 
wholesome dread of a standing army was great, 
but there was no such deep-seated jealousy of a 
navy, and Congress was accordingly allowed not 
only to appoint all naval officers, but also to 
establish courts of admiralty. 

Several essential attributes of sovereignty were 
thus withheld from the states; and by assum- 
ing all debts contracted by Congress prior to 
the adoption of the articles, and solemnly pledg- 
ing the public faith for their payment, it was 
implicitly declared that the sovereignty here ac- 
corded to Congress was substantiallv the same 
as that which it had asserted and exercised ever 
since the severing of the connection with Eng- 
land. The articles simply defined the relations 
of the states to the Confederation as they had 

115 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

already shaped themselves. Indeed, the articles, 
though not finally ratified till 1781, had been 
known to Congress and to the people ever since 
1776 as their expected constitution, and politi- 
cal action had been shaped in general accordance 
with the theory on which they had been drawn 
up. They show that political action was at no 
time based on the view of the states as abso- 
lutely sovereign, but they also show that the 
share of sovereignty accorded to Congress was 
very inadequate even to the purposes of an 
effective confederation. The position in which 
they left Congress was hardly more than that of 
the deliberative head of a league. For the most 
The articles fundamental of all the attributes of 
failed to sovereignty — the power of taxation 

create a fed- . /-^ t 

erai govern- — was not givcn to Congrcss. It 
menten- could neither raise taxes through an 

dowed with , '-' 

rea) sover- cxcisc nor through custom - house 
eignty duties ; it could only make requisi- 

tions upon the thirteen members of the con- 
federacy in proportion to the assessed value of 
their real estate, and it was not provided with 
any means of enforcing these requisitions. On 
this point the articles contained nothing beyond 
the vague promise of the states to obey. The 
power of levying taxes was thus retained en- 
tirely by the states. They not only imposed 
direct taxes, as they do to-day, but they laid 
duties on exports and imports, each according 
116 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

to its own narrow view of its local interests. 
The only restriction upon this was that such 
state- imposed duties must not interfere with 
the stipulations of any foreign treaties such as 
Congress might make in pursuance of treaties 
already proposed to the courts of France and 
Spain. Besides all this, the states shared with 
Congress the powers of coining money, of emit- 
ting bills of credit, and of making their pro- 
missory notes a legal tender for debts. 

Such was the constitution under which the 
United States had begun to drift toward anarchy 
even before the close of the Revolutionary War, 
but which could only be amended by the unan- 
imous consent of all the thirteen states. The 
historian cannot but regard this difficulty of 
amendment as a fortunate circumstance ; for in 
the troubles which presently arose it led the dis- 
tressed people to seek some other method of 
relief, and thus prepared the way for the Con- 
vention of 1787, which destroyed the whole 
vicious scheme, and gave us a form of govern- 
ment under which we have just completed a 
century unparalleled for peace and prosperity. 
Besides this extreme difficulty of amendment, 
the fatal defects of the Confederation were three 
in number. The first defect was the two thirds | 
vote necessary for any important legislation in 
Congress ; under this rule any five of the states 
« — as, for example, the four southernmost states 
117 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

with Maryland, or the four New England states 
with New Jersey — could defeat the most sorely 
needed measures. The second defect was the 
impossibility of presenting a united front to for- 
eign countries in respect to commerce. The 
third and greatest defect was the lack of any 
means, on the part of Congress, of enforcing 
obedience. Not only was there no federal ex- 
r ecutive or judiciary worthy of the name, but the 
central government operated only upon states, 
.^^id not upon individuals. Congress could call 
' for troops and for money in strict conformity 
with the articles ; but should any state prove 
delinquent in furnishing its quota, there were 
no constitutional means of compelling it to obey 
the call. This defect was seen and deplored at 
the outset by such men as Washington and 
Madison, but the only remedy which at first 
occurred to them was one more likely to kill 
than to cure. Only six weeks after the ratifi- 
cation of the articles, Madison proposed an 
amendment " to give to the United States full 
authority to employ their force, as well by sea 
as by land, to compel any delinquent state to 
fulfil its federal engagements." Washington ap- 
proved of this measure, hoping, as he said, that 
" a knowledge that this power was lodged in 
Congress might be the means to prevent its ever 
being exercised, and the more readily induce 
obedience. Indeed," added WashingtoHj ^ if 
ii8 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

Congress were unquestionably possessed of the 
power, nothing should induce the display of it 
but obstinate disobedience and the urgency of 
the general welfare." Madison argued that in 
the very nature of the Confederation such a 
right of coercion was necessarily implied, though 
not expressed in the articles, and much might 
have been said in behalf of this opinion. The 
Confederation explicitly declared itself to be per- 
petual, yet how could it perpetuate itself for 
a dozen years without the right to coerce its 
refractory members ? Practically, however, the 
remedy was one which could never have been 
applied without breaking the Confederation intc 
fragments. To use the army or navy in coercing 
a state meant nothing less than civil war. The 
local yeomanry would have turned out against 
the Continental army with as high a spirit as 
that with which they swarmed about the British 
enemy at Lexington or King's Mountain. A 
government which could not collect the taxes 
for its yearly budget without tiring upon citizens 
or blockading two or three harbours would have 
been the absurdest political anomaly imaginable. 
No such idea could have entered the mind of 
a statesman save from the hope that if one state 
should prove refractory, all the others would 
immediately frown upon it and uphold Con- 
gress in overawing it. In such case the know- 
ledge that Congress had the power would doubt* 
119 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

less have been enough to make its exercise 
unnecessary. But in fact this hope was disap- 
pointed, for the dehnquency of each state simply 
set an example of disobedience for all the others 
to follow ; and the amendment, had it been 
carried, would merely have armed Congress with 
a threat which everybody would have laughed 
at. So manifestly hopeless was the case to 
Pelatiah Webster that, as early as May, 178 1, 
he published an able pamphlet, urging the ne- 
cessity for a federal convention for overhauling 
the whole scheme of government from begin- 
ning to end. 

The military weakness due to this imperfect 
governmental organization may be illustrated 
Military by compaHng the number of regular 

re^govem-^ troops which Congrcss was able to 
ment kccp in the field during the Revolu- 

tionary War with the number maintained by the 
United States government during the War of 
Secession. A rough estimate, obtained from 
averages, will suffice to show the broad contrast. 
In 1863, the middle year of the War of Seces- 
sion, the total population of the loyal states was 
about 23,491,600, of whom nearly one fifth, 
or 4,698,320, were adult males of military age. 
Supposing one adult male out of every five to 
have been under arms at one time, the number 
would have been 939,664. Now the total num- 
ber of troops enlisted in the northern army 
120 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

during the four years of war, reduced to a uni- 
form standard, was 2,320,272, or an average of 
580,068 under arms in any single year. In point 
of fact, this average was reached before the mid- 
dle of the war, and the numbers went on increas- 
ing, until at the end there were more than a 
million men under arms, — at least one out of 
every five adult males in the northern states. 
On the other hand, in 1779, the middle year 
of the Revolutionary War, the white population 
of the United States was about 2,175,000, of 
whom 435,000 were adult males of military age. 
Supposing one out of every five of these to 
have been under arms at once, the number 
would have been 87,000. Now in the spring 
of 1777, when the Continental Congress was 
at the highest point of authority which it ever 
reached, when France was willing to lend it 
money freely, when its paper currency was not 
yet discredited and it could make liberal offers 
of bounties, a demand was made upon the states 
for 80,000 men, or nearly one fifth of the adult 
male population, to serve for three years or 
during the war. Only 34,820 were obtained. 
The total number of men in the field in that 
most critical year, including the swarms of 
militia who came to the rescue at Ridgefield and 
Bennington and Oriskany, and the Pennsyl- 
vania militia who turned out while their state 
was invaded, was 68,720. In i78i,when the 
121 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

credit of Congress was greatly impaired, al- 
though military activity again rose to a maxi- 
mum and it was necessary for the people to 
strain every nerve, the total number of men 
in the field, militia and all, was only 29,340, 
of whom only 13,292 were Continentals; and 
it was left for the genius of Washington and 
Greene, working with desperate energy and most 
pitiful resources, to save the country. A more 
impressive contrast to the readiness with which 
the demands of the government were met in the 
War of Secession can hardly be imagined. Had 
the country put forth its strength in 1781 as it 
did in 1864, an army of 90,000 men might have 
overwhelmed Clinton at the north and Corn- 
wallis at the south, without asking anv favours 
of the French fleet. Had it put forth its full 
strength in 1777, four years of active warfare 
might have been spared. Mr. Lecky explains 
this difl^erence by his favourite hypothesis that 
the American Revolution was the work of a few 
ultra-radical leaders, with whom the people were 
not generally in sympathy ; and he thinks we 
could not expect to see great heroism or self- 
sacrifice manifested by a people who went to 
war over what he calls a " money dispute." ^ 
But there is no reason for supposing that the 
loyalists represented the general sentiment of 
the country in the Revolutionary War any more 
* History of England in the Eighteenth Century, iii. 447. 
122 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

than the peace party represented the general 
sentiment of the northern states in the War of 
Secession. There is no reason for supposing 
that the people were less at heart in 1781, in 
fighting for the priceless treasure of self-govern- 
ment, than they were in 1 864, when they fought 
for the maintenance of the pacific principles un- 
derlying our Federal Union. The differences 
in the organization of the government, and in 
its power of operating directly upon the people, 
are quite enough to explain the difference be- 
tween the languid conduct of the earlier war and 

o 

the energetic conduct of the later. 

Impossible as Congress found it to fill the 
quota of the army, the task of raising a reve- 
nue by requisitions upon the states was even 
more discouraging. Every state had its own 
war debt, and several were applicants for foreign 
loans not easy to obtain, so that none could 
without the greatest difficulty raise a Extreme 
surplus to hand over to Congress. ^Sngf 
The Continental rag money had ceased revenue 
to circulate by the end of 1780, and our foreign 
credit was nearly ruined. The French govern- 
ment began to complain of the heavy demands 
which the Americans made upon its exchequer, 
and Vergennes, in sending over a new loan in 
the fall of 1782, warned Franklin that no more 
must be expected. To save American credit 
from destruction, it was at least necessary that 
123 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

the interest on the public debt should be paid. 
For this purpose Congress in 178 1 asked per- 
mission to levy a five per cent, duty on imports. 
The modest request was the signal for a year 
of angry discussion. Again and again it was 
asked, If taxes could thus be levied by any 
power outside the state, why had we ever op- 
posed the Stamp Act or the tea duties ? The 
question was indeed a serious one, and as an in- 
stance of reasoning from analogy seemed plaus- 
ible enough. After more than a year Mas- 
sachusetts consented, — by a bare majority of 
two in the House and one in the Senate, — re- 
serving to herself the right of appointing the 
collectors. The bill was then vetoed bv Gov- 
ernor Hancock, though one day too late, and 
so it was saved. But Rhode Island flatly re- 
fused her consent, and so did Virginia, though 
Madison earnestly pleaded the cause of the pub- 
lic credit. For the current expenses of the gov- 
ernment in that same year ^9,000,000 were 
needed. It was calculated that ^4,000,000 might 
be raised by a loan, and the other $5,000,000 
were demanded of the states. At the end of 
the year $422,000 had been collected, not a 
cent of which came from Georgia, the Caro- 
linas, or Delaware. Rhode Island, which paid 
$38,000, did the best of all according to its re- 
sources. Of the Continental taxes assessed in 
1783, only one fifth part had been paid by the 
124 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

middle of 1785. And the worst of It was that 
no one could point to a remedy for this state 
of things or could assign any probable end 
to it. 

Under such circumstances the public credit 
sank at home as well as abroad. Foreign cred- 
itors — even France, who had been nothing if 
not generous with her loans — might be made 
to wait; but there were creditors at home who, 
should they prove ugly, could not be so easily 
put off. The disbandment of the army in the 
summer of 1783, before the British troops had 
evacuated New York, was hastened by the 
impossibility of paying the soldiers and the 
dread of what they might do under such pro- 
vocation. Though peace had been officially 
announced, Hamilton and Livingston urged 
that, for the sake of appearances if for no other 
reason, the army should be kept together so 
long as the British remained In New York, If 
not until they should have surrendered tne 
western frontier posts. But Congress could not 
pay the army, and was afraid of it — Dread of 
and not without some reason. DIs- ^^'^ ^''"^y 
couraged at the length of time which had passed 
since they had received any money, the soldiers 
had begun to fear lest, now that their services 
were no longer needed, their honest claims 
would be set aside. Among the officers, too, 
there was grave discontent. In the spring of 
125 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

1778, after the dreadful winter at Valley Forge, 
several officers had thrown up their commissions, 
and others threatened to do likewise. To avert 
the danger, Washington had urged Congress to 
promise half-pay for life to such officers as 
should serve to the end of the war. It was only 
with great difficulty that he succeeded in ob- 
taining a promise of half-pay for seven years, 
and even this raised an outcry throughout the 
country, which seemed to dread its natural 
defenders only less than its enemies. In the fall 
of 1780, however, in the general depression 
which followed upon the disasters at Charleston 
and Camden, the collapse of the paper money, 
and the discovery of Arnold's treason, there 
was serious danger that the army would fall to 
pieces. At this critical m.oment Washington 
had earnestly appealed to Congress, and against 
the strenuous opposition of Samuel Adams had 
at length extorted the promise of half-pay for 
life. In the spring of 178a, seeing the utter 
inability of Congress to discharge its pecuniary 
obligations, many officers began to doubt 
whether the promise would ever be kept. It 
had been made before the articles of confedera- 
tion, which required the assent of nine states to 
any such measure, had been finally ratified. It 
was well known that nine states had never been 
found to favour the measure, and it was now 
feared that it might be repealed or repudiated, 
126 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

so loud was the popular clamour against it. All 
this comes of republican government, said some 
of the officers ; too many cooks spoil the broth ; 
a dozen heads are as bad as no head ; you do 
not know whose promises to trust ; a monarchy, 
with a good king whom all men can trust, 
would extricate us from these difficulties. In 
this mood, Colonel Louis Nicola, of the Penn- 
sylvania line, a foreigner by birth, addressed a 
long and well-argued letter to Washington, set- 
ting forth the troubles of the time, and supposed 
urging him to come forward as a sav- J^lj^^g^""" 
iour of society, and accept the crown Washing- 
at the hands of his faithful soldiers. ^°" ""'"^ 
Nicola was an aged man, of excellent character, 
and in making this suggestion he seemed to be 
acting as spokesman of a certain clique or party 
among the officers, — how numerous is not 
known. Washington instantly replied that Nic- 
ola could not have found a person to whom 
such a scheme could be more odious, and he 
was at a loss to conceive what he had ever done 
to have it supposed that he could for one mo- 
ment listen to a suggestion so fraught with 
mischief to his country. Lest the affiiir, becom- 
ing known, should enhance the popular distrust 
of the army, Washington said nothing about it. 
But as the year went by, and the outcry against 
half-pay continued, and Congress showed symp- 
toms of its willingness to compromise the 
127 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

matter, the discontent of the army increased. 
Officers and soldiers alike brooded over their 
wrongs. " The army," said General Macdou- 
gall, " is verging to that state which, we are 
told, will make a wise man mad." The peril 
of the situation was increased by the well-meant 
but injudicious whisperings of other public 
creditors, who believed that if the army would 
only take a firm stand and insist upon a grant 
of permanent funds to Congress for liquidating 
all public debts, the states could probably be 
prevailed upon to make such a grant. Robert 
Morris, the able secretary of finance, held this 
opinion, and did not believe that the states 
could be brought to terms in any other way. 
His namesake and assistant, Gouverneur Mor- 
ris, held similar views, and gave expression to 
them in February, 1783, in a letter to Gen- 
eral Greene, who was still commanding in South 
Carolina. When Greene received the letter, he 
urged upon the legislature of that state, in most 
guarded and moderate language, the paramount 
need of granting a revenue to Congress, and 
hinted that the army would not be satisfied v/ith 
anything less. The assembly straightway flew 
into a rage, and shouted, "No dictation by a 
Cromwell ! " South Carolina had consented to 
the five per cent, impost, but now she revoked 
it, to show her independence, and Greene's eyes 
were opened at once to the danger of the 
ia8 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

slightest appearance of military intervention in 
civil affairs. 

At the same time a violent outbreak in the 
army at Newburgh was barely prevented by the 
unfailing tact of Washington. A rumour went 
about the camp that it was generally expected 
the army would not disband until the question 
of pay should be settled, and that the public 
creditors looked to them to make some such 
demonstration as would overawe the delinquent 
states. General Gates had lately emerged from 
the retirement in which he had been fain to hide 
himself after Camden, and had rejoined the 
army, where there was now such a field for 
intrigue. An odious aroma of impotent malice 
clings about his memory on this last occasion 
on which the historian needs to notice him. He 
plotted in secret with officers of the staff and 
others. One of his staff, Major Armstrong, 
wrote an anonymous appeal to the troops, and 
another. Colonel Barber, caused it to be circu- 
lated about the camp. It named the next day 
for a meeting to consider grievances. Its lan- 
guage was inflammatory. " My friends ! " it 
said, "after seven long years your The danger- 
suffering courage has conducted the «;;^J-- 
United States of America through a dress, March 
doubtful and bloody war; and peace "' '^ ^ 
returns to bless — whom ? A country willing to 
redress your wrongs, cherish your worth, and 
129 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

reward your services ? Or Is it rather a country 
that tramples upon your rights, disdains your 
cries, and insults your distresses ? . . . If such 
be your treatment while the swords you wear 
are necessary for the defence of America, what 
have you to expect when those very swords, 
the instruments and companions of your glory, 
shall be taken from your sides, and no mark 
of military distinction left but your wants, in- 
firmities, and scars? If you have sense enough 
to discover and spirit to oppose tyranny, what- 
ever garb it may assume, awake to your situa- 
tion. If the present moment be lost, your 
threats hereafter will be as empty as your en- 
treaties now. Appeal from the justice to the 
fears of government, and suspect the man who 
would advise to longer, forbearance." 

Better English has seldom been wasted in a 
worse cause. Washington, the man who was 
aimed at in the last sentence, got hold of the 
paper next day, just in time, as he said, " to 
arrest the feet that stood wavering on a preci- 
pice." The memory of the revolt of the Penn- 
sylvania line, which had so alarmed the people 
in 178 1, was still fresh in men's minds; and 
here was an invitation to more wholesale mutiny, 
which could hardly "fail to end in bloodshed, 
and might precipitate the perplexed and embar- 
rassed country into civil war. Washington issued 
a general order, recognizing the existence of the 
130 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

manifesto, but overruling it so far as to appoint 
the meeting for a later day, with the senior 
major-general, who happened to be Gates, to 
preside. This order, which neither discipline 
nor courtesy could disregard, in a measure tied 
Gates's hands, while it gave Washington time 
to ascertain the extent of the disaffection. On 
the appointed day he suddenly came into the 
meeting, and amid profoundest silence broke 
forth in a most eloquent and touching speech. 
Sympathizing keenly with the sufferings of his 
hearers, and fully admitting their claims, he 
appealed to their better feelings, and reminded 
them of the terrible difficulties under which 
Congress laboured, and of the folly of putting 
themselves in the wrong. He still counselled 
forbearance as the greatest of victories, and 
with consummate skill he characterized the 
anonymous appeal as undoubtedly the work of 
some crafty emissary of the British, eager to 
disgrace the army which they had not been able 
to vanquish. All were hushed by that majestic 
presence and those solemn tones. The know- 
ledge that he had refused all pay, while endur- 
ing more than any other man in the room, gave 
added weight to every word. In proof of the 
good faith of Congress he began reading a letter 
from one of the members,- when, finding his 
sight dim, he paused and took from his pocket 
the new pair of spectacles which the astronomer 

131 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

David Rittenhouse had just sent him. He had 
never worn spectacles in public, and as he put 
them on he said, in his simple manner and with 
his pleasant smile, " I have grown gray in your 
service, and now find myself growing blind." 
While all hearts were softened he went on read- 
ing the letter, and then withdrew, leaving the 
meeting to its deliberations. There was a sudden 
and mighty revulsion of feeling. A motion was 
reported declaring "unshaken confidence in the 
justice of Congress ; " and it was added that 
" the officers of the American army view with 
abhorrence and reject with disdain the infamous 
proposals contained in a late anonymous address 
to them." The crestfallen Gates, as chairman, 
had nothing to do but put the question and 
report it carried unanimously ; for if any still 
remained obdurate they no longer dared to 
show it. Washington immediately set forth the 
urgency of the case in an earnest letter to Con- 
gress, and one week later the matter was settled 
by an act commuting half-pay for life into a 
gross sum equal to five years' full pay, to be 
discharged at once by certificates bearing interest 
at six per cent. Such poor paper was all that 
Congress had to pay with, but it was all ulti- 
mately redeemed ; and while the commutation 
was advantageous to the government, it was at 
the same time greatly for the interest of the 
officers, while they were looking out for new 
132 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

means of livelihood, to have their claims ad* 
justed at once, and to receive something which 
could do duty as a respectable sum of money. 

Nothing, however, could prevent the story 
of the Newburgh affair from being published 
all over the country, and it greatly added to the 
distrust with which the army was regarded on 
general principles. What might have happened 
was forcibly suggested by a miserable occur- 
rence in June, about two months after the dis- 
banding of the army had begun. Some eighty 
soldiers of the Pennsylvania line, mutinous 
from discomfort and want of pay, broke from 
their camp at Lancaster and marched down to 
Philadelphia, led by a sergeant or two. They 
drew up in line before the state house, where 
Congress was assembled, and after passing the 
grog began throwing stones and pointing their 
muskets at the windows. They de- 
manded pay, and threatened, if it driven from 
were not forthcoming, to seize the bTSot 
members of Congress and hold them soldiers, June 
as hostages, or else to break into the ^' ^'^ ^ 
bank where the federal deposits were kept. 
The executive council of Pennsylvania sat in 
the same building, and so the federal govern- 
ment appealed to the state government for pro- 
tection. The appeal was fruitless. President 
Dickinson had a few state militia at his dis- 
posal, but did not dare to summon them, for 

^33 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

fear they should side with the rioters. The city 
government was equally listless, and the towns- 
folk went their ways as if it were none of their 
business ; and so Congress fled across the river 
and on to Princeton, where the college aflx)rded 
it shelter. Thus in a city of thirty-two thou- 
sand inhabitants, the largest city in the country, 
the government of the United States, the body 
which had just completed a treaty browbeating 
England and France, w-as ignominiously turned 
out of doors by a handful of drunken muti- 
neers. The afl^air was laughed at by many, but 
sensible men keenly felt the disgrace, and asked 
what wovild be thought in Europe of a govern- 
ment which could not even command the ser- 
vices of the police. The army became more 
unpopular than ever, and during the summer 
and fall many town meetings were held in New 
England, condemning the Commutation Act. 
Are we not poor enough already, cried the 
farmers, that we must be taxed to support in 
idle luxury a riotous rabble of soldiery, or cre- 
ate an aristocracy of men with gold lace and 
epaulets, who will presently plot against our 
liberties ? The Massachusetts legislature pro- 
tested ; the people of Connecticut meditated 
resistance. A convention was held at Middle- 
town in December, at which two thirds of the 
towns in the state were represented, and the 
best method of overruling Congress was dis- 
134 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

cussed. Much high-flown eloquence was wasted, 
but the convention broke up without deciding 
upon any course of action. The matter had be- 
come so serious that wise men changed their 
minds, and disapproved of proceedings calcu- 
lated to throw Congress into contempt. Samuel 
Adams, who had almost violently opposed the 
grant of half-pay and had been dissatisfied with 
the Commutation Act, now came completely 
over to the other side. Whatever might be 
thought of the policy of the measures, he said. 
Congress had an undoubted right to adopt 
them. The army had been necessary for the 
defence of our liberties, and the public faith had 
been pledged to the payment of the soldiers. 
States were as much bound as individuals to 
fulfil their engagements, and did not the sacred 
Scriptures say of an honest man that, though 
he sweareth to his own hurt, he changeth not ? 
Such plain truths prevailed in the Boston town 
meeting, which voted that " the commutation 
is wisely blended with the national debt.'* The 
agitation in New England presently/came to an 
end, and in this matter the course/of Congress 
was upheld. / 

In order fully to understand this extravagant 
distrust of the army, we have to take into 
account another incident of the summer of 1783, 
which gave rise to a discussion that sent its re- 
verberation all over the civilized world. Men 

^35 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

of the present generation who in childhood 
rummaged in their grandmothers' cosy garrets 
can hardly fail to have come across scores of 
musty and worm-eaten pamphlets, their yellow 
pages crowded with italics and exclamation 
points, inveighing in passionate language against 
the wicked and dangerous society of the Cin- 
cinnati. Just before the army was disbanded, 
the officers, at the suggestion of General Knox, 
formed themselves into a society, for the pur- 
pose of keeping up their friendly intercourse 
and cherishing the heroic memories of the 
struggle in which they had taken part. With 
the fondness for classical analogies which char- 
Order of the actcnzcd that time, they likened them- 
cincinnati sclves to Cincinnatus, who was taken 
from the plough to lead an army, and returned 
to his quiet farm so soon as his warlike duties 
were over. They were modern Cincinnati. A 
constitution and by-laws were established for 
the order, and Washington was unanimously 
chosen to be its president. Its branches in the 
several states were to hold meetings each 
Fourth of July, and there was to be a general 
meeting of the whole society every vear in the 
month of May. French officers who had taken 
part in the war were admitted to membership, 
and the order was to be perpetuated by descent 
through the eldest male representatives of the 
families of the members. It was further pro- 
136 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

vided that a limited membership should from 
time to time be granted, as a distinguished 
honour, to able and worthy citizens, without 
regard to the memories of the war. A golden 
American eagle attached to a blue ribbon 
edged with white was the sacred badge of the 
order ; and to this emblem especial favour was 
shown at the French court, where the insignia 
of foreign states were generally, it is said, re^ 
garded with jealousy. No political purpose 
was to be subserved by this order of the Cin- 
cinnati, save in so far as the members pledged 
to one another their determination to promote 
and cherish the union between the states. In 
its main Intent the society was to be a kind of 
masonic brotherhood, charged with the duty 
of aiding :he widows and the orphan children 
of its members in time of need. Innocent as all 
this was, however, the news of the establish- 
ment of such a society was greeted with a howl 
of indignation all over the country. It was 
thought that its founders were inspired by a 
deep-laid political scheme for centralizing the 
government and setting up a hereditary aris- 
tocracy. The press teemed with invective and 
ridicule, and the feeling thus expressed by the 
penny-a-liners was shared by able men accus- 
tomed to weigh their words. Franklin dealt 
with it in a spirit of banter, and John Adams 
in a spirit of abhorrence ; while Samuel Adams 
137 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

pointed out the dangers inherent in the prin- 
ciple of hereditary transmission of honours, 
and in the admission of foreigners into a secret 
association possessed of poHtical influence in 
America. What ! cried the men of Massachu- 
setts. Have we thrown overboard the efi^ete 
institutions of Europe, only to have them 
straightway introduced among us again, after 
this plausible and surreptitious fashion ? At 
Cambridge it was thought that the general sen- 
timent of the university was in favour of sup- 
pressing the order by act of legislature. One 
of the members, who was a candidate for sena- 
tor in the spring of 1784, found it necessary to 
resign in order to save his chances for election. 
Rhode Island proposed to disfranchise such of 
her citizens as belonged to the order, albeit her 
most eminent citizen, Nathanael Greene, was 
one of them. ^Edanus Burke, a judge of the 
Supreme Court of South Carolina, wrote a vio- 
lent pamphlet against the society of the Cin- 
cinnati under the pseudonym of Cassius, the 
slayer of tyrants ; and this diatribe, translated 
and amplified by Mirabeau, awakened its dull 
echoes among readers of Rousseau and haters 
of privilege in all parts of Europe. A swarm 
of brochures in rejoinder and rebuttal issued 
from the press, and the nineteenth century had 
come in before the controversy was quite for- 
gotten. 

138 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

It is easy for us now to smile at this outcry 
against the Cincinnati as much ado about no- 
thing, seeing as we do that in the absence of 
territorial jurisdiction or especial political privi- 
leges an order of nobility cannot be created by 
the mere inheritance of empty titles or badges. 
For example, since the great revolution which 
swept away the landlordship and fiscal exemp- 
tions of the French nobility, a marquisate or a 
dukedom in France is of scarcely more political 
importance than a doctorate of laws in a New 
England university. Men were nevertheless 
not to be blamed in 1783 for their hostility 
toward that ghost of the hereditary principle 
which the Cincinnati sought to introduce. In 
a free industrial society like that of America 
it had no proper place or meaning ; and the 
attempt to set up such a form might well have 
been cited in illustration of the partial reversion 
toward militancy which eight years of warfare 
had effected. The absurdity of the situation was 
quickly realized by Washington, and he pre- 
vailed upon the new society, in its first annual 
meeting of May, 1784, to abandon the "princi- 
ple of hereditary membership. The agitation 
was thus allayed, and in the presence of graver 
questions the much-dreaded brotherhood grad- 
ually ceased to occupy popular attention. 

The opposition to the Cincinnati is not fully 
explained unless we consider it in connection 
139 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

with Nicola's letter, the Newburgh address, 
and the flight of Congress to Princeton. The 
members of the Cincinnati were pledged to do 
whatever they could to promote the union be- 
tween the states ; the object of the Newburgh 
address was to enlist the army in behalf of the 
public creditors, and in some vaguely imagined 
fashion to force a stronger government upon 
the country ; the letter of Nicola shows that at 
least some of the officers had harboured the 
notion of a monarchy ; and the weakness of 
Congress had been revealed in the most star- 
tling manner by its flight before a squad of 
mutineers. It is one of the lessons of history 
that, in the virtual absence of a central govern- 
ment for which a need is felt, the want is apt 
to be supplied by the strongest organization in 
the country, whatever that may happen to be. 
It was in this way that the French army, a few 
years later, got control of the government of 
France and made its general emperor. In 1783, 
if the impotence of Congress were to be as ex- 
plicitly acknowledged as it was implicitly felt, 
the only national organization left in the coun- 
try was the army, and when this was disbanded 
it seemed nevertheless to prolong its life under 
a new and dangerous form in the brotherhood 
of the Cincinnati. The cession of western lands 
to the confederacy was, moreover, completed at 
about this time, and one of the uses to which 
140 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

the new territory was to be put was the pay- 
ment of claims due to the soldiers. It was 
distinctly feared, as is shown in a letter from 
Samuel Adams to Elbridge Gerry, that the 
members of the Cincinnati would acquire large 
tracts of w^estern land under this arrangement, 
and, importing peasants from Germany, would 
grant farms to them on terms of military ser- 
vice and fealty, thus introducing into America 
a kind of feudal system. In order to forestall 
any such movement, it was provided by Con- 
gress that in any new states formed out of the 
western territory no person holding a heredi- 
tary title should be admitted to citizenship. 

From the weakness of Congress as illustrated 
in its inability to raise money to pay the public 
debt and meet the current expenses of govern- 
ment, and from the popular dread of military 
usurpation which went along with the uneasy 
consciousness of that weakness, we have now to 
turn to another group of affairs in which the 
same point is still further illustrated and em- 
phasized. We have seen how the commission- 
ers of the United States in Paris had succeeded 
in making a treaty of peace with Great Britain 
on extremely favourable terms. So unpopular 
was the treaty in England, on account of the 
great concessions made to the Americans, that, 
as we have seen, the fall of Lord Shelburne's 
ministry was occasioned thereby. As an offset 
141 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

to these liberal concessions, of which the most 
considerable was the acknowledgment of the 
Congress Am.crican claim to the northwestern 
finds Itself territory, our confederate government 

unable ro •- ' _ & ^ 

carry out was pledged to do all in its power 
sions^f^' to effect certain concessions which 
the treaty wcrc demanded by England. That 
the American loyalists, whose property had 
been confiscated by various state governments, 
should be indemnified for their losses was a 
claim which, whatever Americans might think 
of it, England felt bound in honour to urge. 
That private debts, due from American to Brit- 
ish creditors, should be faithfully discharged 
was the plainest dictate of common honesty. 
Congress, as we have seen, was bound by the 
treaty to recommend to the several states to 
desist from the persecution of Tories, and to 
give them an opportunity of recovering their 
estates ; and it had been further agreed that all 
private debts should be discharged at their full 
value in sterling money. It now turned out 
that Congress was powerless to carry out the 
provisions of the treaty upon either of these 
points. The recommendations concerning the 
Tories were greeted with a storm of popular 
indignation. Since the beginning of the war 
these unfortunate persons had been treated with 
severity both by the legislatures and by the 
people. Many had been banished ; others had 
142 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

fled the country, and against these refugees 
various harsh laws had been enacted. Their 
estates had been confiscated, and their Persecution 
return prohibited under penalty of o^ Tories 
imprisonment or death. Many others, who had 
remained in the country, were objects of sus- 
picion and dislike in states where they had not, 
as in New York and the Carolinas, openly 
aided the enemy or taken part in Indian atro- 
cities. Now, on the conclusion of peace, in 
utter disregard of Congress, fresh measures of 
vengeance were taken against these " fawning 
spaniels," as they were called, these " tools and 
minions of Britain." An article in the " Massa- 
chusetts Chronicle " expressed the common feel- 
ing : " As Hannibal swore never to be at peace 
with the Romans, so let every Whig swear, by 
his abljorrence of slavery, by liberty and reli- 
gion, by the shades of departed friends who 
have fallen in battle, by the ghosts of those of 
our brethren who have been destroyed on board 
of prison-ships and in loathsome dungeons, 
never to be at peace with those fiends and 
refugees, whose thefts, murders, and treasons 
have filled the cup of woe." Tons of pam- 
phlets, issued under the customary Latin pseu- 
donyms, were filled with this truculent bom- 
bast; and like sentiments were thundered from 
the pulpit by men who had quite forgotten for 
the moment their Christian duty of preaching 

143 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

reconciliation and forgiveness of injuries. Wh^ 
should not these wretches, it was sarcastically 
asked, be driven at once from the country? Of 
course they could not desire to live under a free 
government which they had been at such pains 
to destroy. Let them go forthwith to his ma- 
jesty's dominions, and live under the govern- 
ment they preferred. It would never do to let 
them stay here, to plot treason at their leisure ; 
in a few years they would get control of all the 
states, and either hand them over to Great 
Britain again, or set up a Tory despotism on 
American soil. Such was the rubbish that 
passed current as argument with the majority 
of the people. A small party of moderate 
Whigs saw its absurdity, and urged that the 
Tories had much better remain at home, where 
they had lost all political influence, than ^o and 
found unfriendly colonies to the northward. 
The moderate Whigs were in favour of heed- 
mg the recommendation of Congress, and act- 
ing in accordance with the spirit of the treaty ; 
and these humane and sensible views were 
shared by Gadsden and Marion in South Caro- 
lina, by Theodore Sedgwick in Massachusetts, 
and by Greene, Hamilton, and Jay. But any 
man who held such opinions, no matter how 
conspicuous his services had been, ran the risk 
of being accused of Tory sympathies. " Time- 
serving Whigs " and " trimmers " were the 
144 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

strangely inappropriate epithets hurled at men 
who, had they been in the slightest degree 
time-servers, would have shrunk from the 
thankless task of upholding good sense and 
humanity in the teeth of popular prejudice. 

In none of the states did the loyalists re- 
ceive severer treatment than in Nev^ York, and 
for obvious reasons. Throughout the war the 
frontier had been the scene of atrocities such as 
no other state, save perhaps South Carolina, 
had witnessed. Cherry Valley and MInisink 
vv^ere names of horror not easily forgotten, and 
the fate of Lieutenant Boyd and countless other 
victims called loudly for vengeance. The sins 
of the Butlers and their bloodthirsty followers 
were visited in robbery and insult upon unof- 
fending men, who were like them In nothing 
but in being labelled with the epithet " Tory." 
During the seven years that the city of New 
York had been occupied by the British army, 
many of these loyalists had found shelter there. 
The Whig citizens, on the other hand, had been 
driven off the island, to shift as best they might 
In New Jersey, while their comfortable homes 
were seized and assigned by military orders to 
these very Tories. For seven years the refugee 
Whigs from across the Hudson had looked 
upon New York with feelings like those with 
which the mediaeval exile from Florence or Pisa 
was wont to regard his native city. They saw 
145 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

in it the home of enemies who had robbed 
them, the prison-house of gallant friends penned 
up to die of wanton ill-usage in foul ships' holds 
in the harbour. When at last the king's troops 
left the city, it was felt that a great day of reck- 
oning had arrived. In September, 1783, two 
months before the evacuation, more than twelve 
thousand men, women, and children embarked 
for the Bahamas or for Nova Scotia, rather than 
stay and face the troubles that were coming. 
Many of these were refined and cultivated per- 
sons, and not all had been actively hostile to 
the American cause ; many had simply accepted 
British protection. Against those who remained 
in the city the returning Whigs now proceeded 
with great severity. The violent party was 
dominant in the legislature, and George Clin- 
ton, the governor, put himself conspicuously 
at its head. A bill was passed disfranchising 
all such persons as had voluntarily stayed in 
neighbourhoods occupied by the British troops; 
their offence was called misprision of treason. 
But the council vetoed this bill as too whole- 
sale in its operation, for it would have left some 
districts without voters enough to hold an elec- 
tion. An " iron-clad oath " was adopted instead, 
and no one was allowed to vote unless he could 
swear that he had never in any wise abetted the 
enemy. It was voted that no Tory who had 
left the state should be permitted to return ; 
146 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

and a bill was passed known as the Trespass 
Act, whereby all persons who had quit their 
homes by reason of the enemy's pre- The Trespass 
sence might recover damages in an Act of New 

r° • ^ 1 York, 1784 

action or trespass agamst such per- 
sons as had since taken possession of the 
premises. Defendants in such cases were ex- 
pressly barred from pleading a military order 
in justification of their possession. As there 
was scarcely a building on the island of New 
York that had not thus changed hands during 
the British occupation, it was easy to foresee 
what confusion must ensue. Everybody whose 
house had once been, for ever so few davs, in 
the hands of a Tory now rushed into court with 
his action of trespass. Damages were rated at 
most exorbitant figures, and it became clear that 
the misdeeds of the enemy were about to be 
made the excuse for a carnival of spoliation, 
when all at once the test case of Rutgers v. Wad- 
dington brought upon the scene a sturdy de- 
fender of order, an advocate who was soon to 
become one of the foremost personages in 
American history. 

Of all the young men of that day, save per- 
haps William Pitt, the most precocious was 
Alexander Hamilton. He had already given 
promise of a great career before the Alexander 
breaking out of the war. He was born h^™'^"" 
on the island of Nevis, in the West Indies, in 
147 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

1757. His father belonged to that famous Scot- 
tish clan from which have come one of the most 
learned metaphysicians and one of the most 
original mathematicians of modern times. His 
mother was a French lady, of Huguenot descent, 
and biographers have been fond of tracing in his 
character the various qualities of his parents. 
To the shrewdness and persistence, the admin- 
istrative ability, and the taste for abstract rea- 
soning which we are wont to find associated in 
the highest type of Scottish mind he joined a 
truly French vivacity and grace. His earnest- 
ness, sincerity, and moral courage were char- 
acteristic alike of Puritan and of Huguenot. 
In the course of his short life he exhibited a 
remarkable many-sidedness. So great was his 
genius for organization that in many essential 
respects the American government is moving 
to-day along the lines which he was the first to 
mark out. As an economist he shared to some 
extent in the shortcomings of the age which 
preceded Adam Smith, but in the special de- 
partment of finance he has been equalled by no 
other American statesman save Albert Gallatin. 
He was a convincing orator and brilliant writer, 
an excellent lawyer, and a clear-headed and in- 
dustrious student of political history. He was 
also eminent as a political leader, although he 
lacked faith in democratic government, and a 
generous impatience of temperament sometimes 
148 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

led him to prefer short and arbitrary by-paths 
toward desirable ends, which can never be se- 
curely reached save along the broad but steep 
and arduous road of popular conviction. But 
with all Hamilton's splendid qualities, nothing 
about him is more remarkable than the early 
age at which these were developed. At the age 
of fifteen an able newspaper article brought him 
into such repute in the little island of Nevis 
that he was sent to New York to avail himself 
of the best advantages afforded by the King's 
College, now known as Columbia. He had at 
first no definite intention of becoming an Ameri- 
can citizen, but the thrilling events of the time 
appealed strongly to the earnest heart and pow- 
erful intelligence of this wonderful boy. At a 
gathering of the people of New York in July, 
1774, his generous blood warmed, till a resist- 
less impulse brought him on his feet to speak 
to the assembled multitude. It was no com- 
pany of half-drunken idlers that thronged about 
him, but an assemblage of grave and responsible 
citizens, who looked with some astonishment 
upon this boy of seventeen years, short and 
slight in stature, yet erect and Caesar-like in 
bearing, with firm set mouth and great, dark, 
earnest eyes. His strong and clean-cut speech, 
full of sense and without a syllable of bombast, 
held his hearers entranced, and from that day 
Alexander Hamilton was a marked man. He 
149 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

began publishing anonymous pamphlets, which 
at first were attributed by some to Jay, and by 
others to Livingston. When their authorship 
was discovered, the loyalist party tried in vain 
to buy off the formidable youth. He kept up 
the pamphlet war, in the course of which he 
woefully defeated Dr. Cooper, the Tory presi- 
dent of the college ; but shortly afterward he 
defended the doctor's house against an angry 
mob, until that unpopular gentleman had suc- 
ceeded in making his escape to a British ship. 
Hamilton served in the army throughout the 
war — for the most part as aid and secretary 
to Washington ; but in 1781 he was a colonel 
in the line, and stormed a redoubt at York- 
town with distinguished skill and bravery. He 
married the daughter of Philip Schuyler, be- 
gan the practice of law, and in 1782, at the age 
of twenty-five, was chosen a delegate to Con- 
gress. 

In 1784, when the Trespass Act threw New 
York into confusion, Hamilton had come to be 
regarded as one of the most powerful advocates 
in the country. In the test case which now came 
before the courts he played a bold and manly 
part. Elizabeth Rutgers was a widow, who had 
^, r fled from New York after its capture 

The case of i 

Rutgers I-. by General Howe. Her confiscated 

ington gg^^^g i^j^j passed into the hands of 

Joshua Waddington, a rich Tory merchant^ 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

and she now brought suit under the Trespass 
Act for its recovery. It was a case in which 
popular sympathy was naturally and strongly 
enlisted in behalf of the poor widow. That she 
should be turned out of house and home was 
one of the many gross instances of wickedness 
wrought by the war. On the other hand, the 
disturbance wrought by the enforcement of the 
Trespass Act was already creating fresh wrongs 
much faster than it was righting old ones ; and 
it is for such reasons as this that both in the 
common law and in the law of nations the prin- 
ciple has been firmly established that "the fruits 
of immovables belong to the captor as long as 
he remains in actual possession of them." The 
Trespass Act contravened this principle, and it 
also contravened the treaty. It moreover placed 
the State of New York in an attitude of de- 
fiance toward Congress, which had made the 
treaty and expressly urged upon the states to 
suspend their legislation against the Tories. On 
large grounds of public policy, therefore, the 
Trespass Act deserved to be set aside by the 
courts, and when Hamilton was asked to serve 
as counsel for the defendant he accepted the 
odious task without hesitation. There can be 
no better proof of his forensic ability than his 
winning a verdict, in such a case as this, from a 
hostile court that was largely influenced by the 
popular excitement. The decision nullified the 
151 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

Trespass Act, and forthwith mass meetings of 
the people and an extra session of the legisla- 
ture condemned this action of the court. Ham- 
ilton was roundly abused, and his conduct was 
attributed to unworthy motives. But he faced 
the people as boldly as he had faced the court, 
and published a letter, under the signature of 
Phocion, setting forth in the clearest light the 
injustice and impolicy of extreme measures 
against the Tories. The popular wrath and 
disgust at Hamilton's course found expression 
in a letter from one Isaac Ledyard, a hot-headed 
pot-house politician, who signed himself Men- 
tor. A war of pamphlets ensued between Mentor 
and Phocion. It was genius pitted against dul- 
ness, reason against passion ; and reason wielded 
by genius won the day. The more intelligent 
and respectable citizens reluctantly admitted 
that Hamilton's arguments were unanswerable. 
A club of boon companions, to which Ledyard 
belonged, made the same admission by the pe- 
culiar manner in which it undertook to silence 
him. It was gravely proposed that the members 
of the club should pledge themselves one after 
another to challenge Hamilton to mortal com- 
bat, until some one of them should have the 
good fortune to kill him ! The scheme met 
with general favour, but was defeated by the 
exertions of Ledyard himself, whose zeal was 
not ardent enough to condone treachery and 
152 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

murder. The incident well illustrates the in- 
tense bitterness of political passion at the time, 
as Hamilton's conduct shows him in the light 
of a courageous and powerful defender of the 
central government. For nothing was more 
significant in the verdict which he had obtained 
than its implicit assertion of the rights of the 
United States as against the legislature of a 
single state. 

In spite of the efforts of such men as Ham- 
ilton, life was made very uncomfortable for the 
Tories. In some states they were subjected to 
mob violence. Instances of tarring and feath- 
ering were not uncommon. The legislature of 
South Carolina was honourably distinguished 
for the good faith with which it endeavoured 
to enforce the recommendation of Congress ; 
but the people, unable to forget the smoking 
ruins of plundered homes, were less lenient. 
Notices were posted ordering prominent loy- 
alists to leave the country ; the newspapers 
teemed with savage warnings ; and finally, of 
those who tarried beyond a certain time, many 
were shot or hanged to trees. This extremity 
of bitterness, however, did not long continue, 
The instances of physical violence were mostly 
confined to the first two or three years after 
the close of the war. In most of the states 
the confiscating acts were after a while re- 
pealed, and many of the loyalists were restored 

153 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

to their estates. But the emigration which took 
place between 1783 and 1785 was very large. 
It has been estimated that 100,000 persons, 
Emigration — OT nearly three per cent, of the 
of Tories ^q^^| ^^jte popuktion, — quit the 
Country. Those from the southern states went 
mostly to the Bahamas and Florida ; while 
those from the north laid the foundation of 
new British states in New Brunswick and Up- 
per Canada. Many of these refugees appealed 
to the British government for indemnification 
for their losses, and their claims received 
prompt attention. A parliamentary commission 
was appointed to inquire into the matter, and 
by the year 1790 some J 16,000,000 had been 
distributed among about 4,000 sufferers, while 
many others received grants of crown-lands, 
or half-pay as military of^cers, or special annu- 
ities, or appointments in the civil service. On 
the whole, the compensation which the refugees 
received from Parliament seems to have been 
much more ample than that which the ragged 
(Soldiers of our Revolutionary army ever re- 
Iceived from Congress. 

While the political passions resulting in this 
forced emigration of loyalists were such as natu- 
rally arise in the course of a civil war, the his- 
torian cannot but regret that the United States 
should have been deprived of the services of so 
many excellent citizens. In nearly all such cases 

154 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

of wholesale popular vengeance, It is the wrong 
Individuals who suffer. We could well afford 
to dispense with the border rufHans who abetted 
the Indians in their carnival of burning and 
scalping, but the refugees of 1784 were for the 
most part peaceful and unoffending families, 
above the average In education and refinement. 
The vicarious suffering inflicted upon them set 
nothing right, but simply Increased the mass 
of wrong, while to the general interests of the 
country the loss of such people was in every 
way damaging. The immediate political detri- 
ment wrought at the time, though It is that 
which most nearly concerns this moment of 
our story, was probably the least Important. 
Since Congress was manifestly unable to carry 
out the treaty, an excuse was furnished to Eng- 
land for declining to fulfil some of Its provi- 
sions. In regard to the loyalists, indeed, the 
treaty had recognized that Congress possessed 
but an advisory power; but in the other pro- 
vision concerning the payment of private debts, 
which in the popular mind was very much mixed 
up with the question of justice to the loyalists, 
the faith of the United States was distinctly 
pledged. On this point, also, Congress was 
powerless to enforce the treaty. Massachusetts, 
New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, 
and South Carolina had all enacted laws ob- 
structing the collection of British debts ; and 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

in flat defiance of the treaty these statutes 
remained in force until after the downfall of 
the Confederation. The States were aware that 
Congress is such conduct needed an excuse, and 
unable to ^^^ ^^^g soon forthcoming. Many 

eniorce pay- o _ - 

ment of debts ncgrocs had left the country with 
creditors. ^hc BHtish fleet I some doubtless had 
England souffht their freedom ; others, per- 

rciuscs to ^^ 

surrender the haps, had bccn kidnapped as booty, 
western posts ^^^ ^^j^ ^^ pkntcrs in the West In- 
dies. The number of these black men carried 
away by the English fleet had been magnified 
tenfold by popular rumour. Complaints had 
been made to Sir Guy Carleton, but he had 
replied that any negro who came within his 
lines was presumably a freeman, and he could 
not lend his aid in remanding such persons 
to slavery. Jay, as one of the treaty commis- 
sioners, gave it as his opinion that Carleton 
was quite right in this, but he thought that 
where a loss of slaves could be proved. Great 
Britain was bound to make pecuniary com- 
pensation to the owners. The matter was wran- 
gled over for years in the state legislatures, in 
town and county meetings, at dinner-tables, 
and in taverns, with the general result that, 
until such compensation should be made, the 
statutes hindering the collection of debts would 
not be repealed. In retaliation for this. Great 

156 



THE LEAGUE OF FRIENDSHIP 

Britain refused to withdraw her garrisons from 
the northwestern fortresses/ which the treaty 
had surrendered to the United States. This 
measure was very keenly felt by the people. 
As an assertion of superior strength, it was 
peculiarly galling to our weak and divided con- 
federacy, and it also wrought us direct practi- 
cal injury. It encouraged the Indian tribes in 
their depredations on the frontier, and it de- 
prived American merchants of a lucrative trade 
in furs. In the spring of 1787 there were ad- 
vertised for sale in London more than 360,000 
skins, worth 1 1,200,000 at the lowest estimate ; 
and had the posts been surrendered accord- 
ing to the treaty, all this would probably have 
passed through the hands of American mer- 
chants. The London fur traders were natu- 
rally very unwilling to lose their control over 
this business, and in the language of mod- 
ern politics they brought " pressure " to bear 
on their government to retain the fortresses 
as long as possible. The American refusal to 
pay British creditors furnished a plausible ex- 
cuse, while the weakness of Congress made any 
kind of reprisal impossible, — and it was not 
until Washington's second term as president, 
after our national credit had been fully re- 

^ These were Ogdensburgh, Oswego, Niagara, Detroit, 
and Mackinaw, with a few others of less importance. 



m 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

stored and the strength of our new government 
made manifest, that Great Britain really surren- 
dered this chain of strongholds commanding 
the woods and waters of our northwestern fron- 
tier. 



158 



IV 

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

A T the close of the eighteenth century the 
/-\ barbarous superstitions of the Middle 
-^ -^ Ages concerning trade between nations 
still flourished with scarcely diminished vital- 
ity. The epoch-making work of Adam Smith 
had been published in the same year in which 
the United States declared their independence. 
The one was the great scientific event, as the 
other was the great political event, of the age ; 
but of neither the one nor the other were the 
scope and purport fathomed at that time. 
Among the foremost statesmen, those who, like 
Shelburne and Gallatin, understood the princi- 
ples of the " Wealth of Nations " were few in- 
deed. The simple principle that when two par- 
ties trade both must be gainers, or one „ , 

'^ Barbarous 

would soon stop tradmg, was gener- superstitions 
ally lost sight of; and most commer- ^^^^^ ^"^'^ 
cial legislation proceeded upon the theory that 
in trade, as in gambling or betting, what the 
one party gains the other must lose. Hence 
towns, districts, and nations, surrounded them- 
selves with walls of legislative restrictions in- 
159 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

tended to keep out the monster Trade, or to 
admit him only on strictest proof that he could 
do no harm. On this barbarous theory, the use 
ot a colony consisted in its being a customer 
which you could compel to trade with yourself, 
while you could prevent it from trading with 
anybody else; and having secured this point, 
you could cunningly arrange things by legisla- 
tion so as to throw all the loss upon this 
enforced customer, and keep all the gain to 
yourself. In the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries all the commercial legislation of the 
great colonizing states was based upon this the- 
ory of the use of a colony. For effectiveness, 
it shared to some extent the characteristic fea- 
tures of legislation for making water run up 
hill. It retarded commercial development all 
over the world, fostered monopolies, made the 
rich richer and the poor poorer, hindered the 
interchange of ideas and the refinement of man- 
ners, and sacrificed millions of human lives in 
misdirected warfare ; but what it was intended 
to do it did not do. The sturdy race of smug- 
glers — those despised pioneers of a higher civ- 
ilization — thrived In defiance of kings and par- 
liaments ; and as It was impossible to carry out 
such legislation thoroughly without stopping 
trade altogether, colonies and mother countries 
contrived to increase their wealth in spite of it. 
The colonies, however, understood the animus 
1 60 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

of the theory in so far as it was directed against 
them, and the revolutionary sentiment in Amer- 
ica had gained much of its strength from the 
protest against this one-sided justice. In one 
of its most important aspects, the Revolution 
was a deadly blow aimed at the old system of 
trade restrictions. It was to a certain extent a 
step in realization of the noble doctrines of 
Adam Smith. But where the scientific thinker 
grasped the whole principle involved in the 
matter, the practical statesmen saw only the 
special application which seemed to concern 
them for the moment. They all understood 
that the Revolution had set them free to trade 
with other countries than England, but very 
few of them understood that, whatever coun- 
tries trade together, the one cannot hope to 
benefit by impoverishing the other. 

This point is much better understood in 
England to-day than in the United States; but 
a century ago there was little to choose between 
the two countries in ignorance of political econ- 
omy. England had gained great wealth and 
power through trade with her rapidly growing 
American colonies. One of her chief fears, in 
the event of American independence, had been 
the possible loss of that trade. English mer- 
chants feared that American commerce, when 
no longer confined to its old paths by legisla- 
tion, would somehow find its way to France 
i6i 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

and Holland and Spain and other countrieSj 
until nothing would be left for England. The 
Revolution worked no such change, however. 
The principal trade of the United States was 
with England, as before, because England could 
best supply the goods that Americans wanted ; 
and it is such considerations, and not acts of 
Parliament, that determine trade in its natural 
and proper channels. In 1783 Pitt introduced 
into Parliament a bill which would have secured 
mutual unconditional free trade between the 
two countries ; and this was what such men 
as Franklin, Jefferson, and Madison desired. 
Could this bill have passed, the hard feelings 
occasioned by the war would soon have died 
out, the commercial progress of both countries 
would have been promoted, and the stupid 
measures which led to a second war within 
thirty years might have been prevented. But 
the wisdom of Pitt found less favour in Parlia- 
ment than the dense stupidity of Lord Shef- 
field, who thought that to admit Americans to 
the carrying trade would undermine the naval 
power of Great Britain. Pitt's measure was de- 
feated, and the regulation of commerce with 
America was left to the king in council. Orders 
were forthwith passed as if upon the theory 
that America poor would be a better customer 
than America rich. 

The carrying trade to the West Indies had 
162 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

been one of the most important branches of 
American industry. The men of New Eng- 
land were famous for seamanship, and better 
and cheaper ships could be built in the seaports 
of Massachusetts than anywhere in Great Brit- 
ain. An oak vessel could be built at Gloucester 
or Salem for twenty-four dollars per 

1 • r 1 • ' 1 \ • shipbuilding 

ton ; a ship or live-oak: or American in New Eng- 
cedar cost not more than thirty-eight ^^""^ 
dollars per ton. On the other hand, fir vessels 
built on the Baltic cost thirty-five dollars per 
ton, and nowhere in England, France, or Hol- 
land could a ship be made of oak for less than 
fifty dollars per ton. Often the cost was as high 
as sixty dollars. It was not strange, therefore, 
that before the war more than one third of 
the tonnage afloat under the British flag was 
launched from American dock-yards. The war 
had violently deprived England of this enor- 
mous advantage, and now she sought to make 
the privation perpetual, in the delusive hope of 
confining British trade to British keels, and in 
the belief that it was the height of wisdom to 
impoverish the nation which she regarded as 
her best customer. In July, 1783, an order in 
council proclaimed that henceforth all trade 
between the United States and the British 
West Indies must be carried on in British-built 
ships, owned and navigated by British subjects, 
A serious blow was thus dealt not only at 
163 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

American shipping, but also at the interchange 
of commodities between the states and the 
islands, which was greatly hampered by this re- 
striction. During the whole of the eighteenth 
British navi- ccnturythc West India sugar trade 
gationacts ^^'^j^ ^.j^g Notth American colonies 

and orders in ^ • • i i i r 

council di- and with Great Britain had been of 
Amfricfn"^^ immcnsc value to all parties, and all 
commerce j^^d bcctt scHously damaged by the 
curtailment of it due to the war. Now that the 
artificial state of things created by the war was 
to be perpetuated by legislation, the prospect 
of repairing the loss seemed indefinitely post- 
poned. Moreover, even in trading directly 
with Great Britain, American ships were only 
allowed to bring in articles produced in the 
particular states of which their owners were 
citizens, — an enactment which seemed to add 
insult to injury, inasmuch as it directed espe- 
cial attention to the want of union among the 
thirteen states. Great indignation was aroused 
in America, and reprisals were talked of, but 
efforts were first made to obtain a commercial 
treaty. 

In 1785 Franklin returned from France, and 
Jefferson was sent as minister in his stead, while 
John Adams became the first representative of 
the United States at the British court. Adams 
was at first very courteously received by George 
III., and presently set to work to convince 
164 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

Lord Carmarthen, the foreign secretary, of the 
desirableness of unrestricted intercourse between 
the two countries. But popular opinion in Eng- 
land was obstinately set against him. . j^^ j^^^^^ 
But for the Navigation Act and the tries in vain 

, . . , . -JUL- ^" negotiate a 

orders m council, it was said, all snips commercial 
would by and by come to be built in ^""^"^^^ 
America, and every time a frigate was wanted 
for the navy the Lords of Admiralty would 
have to send over to Boston or Philadelphia 
and order one. Rather than do such a thing as 
this, it was thought that the British navy should 
content itself with vessels of inferior workman- 
ship and higher cost, built in British dock-yards. 
Thirty years after, England gathered an unex- 
pected fruit of this narrow policy, when, to her 
intense bewilderment, she saw frigate after frigate 
outsailed and defeated in single combat with 
American antagonists. Owing to her exclusive 
measures, the rapid improvement in American 
shipbuilding had gone on quite beyond her ken, 
until she was thus rudely awakened to it. With 
similar short-sighted jealousy, it was argued that 
the American share in the whale-fishery and in 
the Newfoundland fishery should be curtailed 
■jLS much as possible. Spermaceti oil was much 
needed in England : complaints were rife of 
robbery and murder in the dimly lighted streets 
of London and other great cities. But it was 
thought that if American ships could carry oil 

165 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

to England and salt fish to Jamaica, the supply 
of seamen for the British navy would be dimin- 
ished ; and accordingly such privileges must not 
be granted the Americans unless valuable privi- 
leges could be granted in return. But the gov- 
ernment of the United States could grant no 
privileges because it could impose no restric- 
tions. British-manufactured goods were needed 
in America, and Congress, which could levy no 
duties, had no power to keep them out. British 
merchants and manufacturers, it was argued, 
already enjoyed all needful privileges in Ameri- 
can ports, and accordingly they asked no favours 
and granted none. 

Such were the arguments to which Adams 
was obliged to listen. The popular feeling was 
so strong that Pitt could not have stemmed it 
if he would. It was in vain that Adams threat- 
ened reprisals, and urged that the British mea- 
sures would defeat their own purpose. " The 
end of the Navigation Act," said he, " as ex- 
pressed in its own preamble, is to confine the 
commerce of the colonies to the mother coun- 
try ; but now we are become independent states, 
instead of confining our trade to Great Britain^ 
it will drive it to other countries : " and he sug-- 
gested that the Americans might make a navi- 
gation act in their turn, admitting to American 
ports none but American-built ships, owned and 
commanded by Americans. But under the 
i66 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

articles of confederation such a threat was idle, 
and the British government knew it to be so. 
Thirteen separate state governments could never 
be made to adopt any such measure in concert. 
The weakness of Congress had been fatally re- 
vealed in its inability to protect the loyalists 
or to enforce the payment of debts, and in its 
failure to raise a revenue for meeting its current 
expenses. A government thus slighted at home 
was naturally despised abroad. Great Britain 
neglected to send a minister to Philadelphia, 
and while Adams was treated politely, his argu- 
ments were unheeded. Whether in this behav- 
iour Pitt's government was influenced or not by 
political as well as economical reasons, it was 
certain that a political purpose was entertained 
by the king and approved by many people. 
There was an intention of humiliating the 
Americans, and it was commonly said that under 
a sufficient weight of commercial distress the 
states would break up their feeble union and 
come straggling back, one after another, to their 
old allegiance. The fiery spirit of Adams could 
ill brook this contemptuous treatment of the 
nation which he represented. Though he fa- 
voured very liberal commercial relations with the 
whole world, he could see no escape from the 
present difficulties save in systematic retaliation. 
" 1 should be sorry," he said, "to adopt a mo- 
nopoly, but, driven to the necessity of it, I would 

167 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

not do things by halves. ... If monopolies 
and exclusions are the only arms of defence 
against monopolies and exclusions, I would 
venture upon them without fear of offending 
Dean Tucker or the ghost of Dr. Quesnay." 
That is to ^ay, certain commercial privileges 
must be withheld from Great Britain, in order 
to be offered to her in return for reciprocal privi- 
leges. It was n miserable policy to be forced to 
adopt, for such restrictions upon trade inevitably 
cut both wavs. Like the non-importation agree- 
ment of 1768 and the embargo of 1808, such 
a policy was open to the objections familiarly 
urged against biting off one's own nose. It was 
injuring one's self in the hope of injuring some- 
body else. Ll was perpetuating in time of peace 
the obstacles to commerce generated by a state 
of war. In a certain sense, it was keeping up 
a warfare by com medal instead of military 
methods, and there was danger that it might 
lead to a renewal of armed conflict. Neverthe- 
less, the conduct of the British government 
seemed to Adams to leave no other course open. 
But such "'* means of preserving ourselves," he 
said, " can never be secured until Congress shall 
be made suDreme in foreign commerce." 

It was obvious enough that the separate action 

of the states upon such a question was only 

adding to the general uncertainty and confusion. 

In 1785 New York laid a double duty on all 

168 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

goods whatever imported in British ships. In 
the same year Pennsylvania passed the first 
of the infamous series of American r ig^i j^, 
tariff acts, designed to tax the whole possible ; the 

^ , , ^ ~ f. states im- 

community tor the benent or a tew pose conflkt-^ 
greedy manufacturers. Massachusetts ^"^ ^^^^^^ 
sought to establish committees of correspond- 
ence for the purpose of entering into a new 
non-importation agreement, and its legislature 
resolved that " the present powers of the Con- 
gress of the United States, as contained in the 
articles of confederation, are not fully adequate 
to the great purposes they were originally de- 
signed to effect." The Massachusetts delegates 
in Congress — Gerry, Holton, and King — 
were instructed to recommend a general con- 
vention of the states for the purpose of revising 
and amending the articles of confederation ; but 
the delegates refused to comply with their in- 
structions, and set forth their reasons in a paper 
which was approved by Samuel Adams, and 
caused the legislature to reconsider its action. 
It was feared that a call for a convention might 
seem too much like an open expression of a 
want of confidence in Congress, and might 
thereby weaken it still further without accom- 
plishing any good result. For the present, as a 
temporary expedient, Massachusetts took coun- 
sel with New Hampshire, and the two states 
passed navigation acts, prohibiting British ships 
169 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

from carrying goods out of their harbours, and 
imposing a fourfold duty upon all such goods 
as thev should bring in. A discriminating ton- 
nage duty was also laid upon all foreign vessels. 
Rhode Island soon after adopted similar mea- 
sures. In Congress a scheme for a uniform nav- 
igation act, to be concurred in and passed by 
all the thirteen states, was suggested by one of 
the Maryland delegates ; but it was opposed by 
Richard Henry Lee and most of the delegates 
from the far south. The southern states, having 
no ships or seamen of their own, feared that the 
exclusion of British competition might enable 
northern ship-owners to charge exorbitant rates 
for carrying their rice and tobacco, thus sub- 
jecting them to a ruinous monopoly ; but the 
gallant Moultrie, then governor of South Caro- 
lina, taking a broader view of the case, wrote to 
Bowdoin, governor of Massachusetts, asserting 
the paramount need of harmonious and united 
action. In the Virginia assembly, a hot-headed 
member. Rev. Charles Thruston, known as " the 
warrior parson," declared himself in doubt 
" whether it would not be better to encourage 
the British rather than the eastern marine ; " 
but the remark was greeted with hisses and 
groans. Amid such mutual jealousies and mis- 
givings, during the year 1785 acts were passed 
by ten states granting to Congress the power of 
regulating commerce for the ensuing thirteen 
170 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

years. The three states which refrained from 
acting were Georgia, South CaroUna, and Dela- 
ware. The acts of the other ten were, as might 
have been expected, a jumble of incongruities. 
North Carolina granted all the power that was 
asked, but stipulated that when all the states 
should have done likewise their acts should be 
summed up in a new article of confederation. 
Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Maryland had 
fixed the date at which the grant was to take ef- 
fect, while Rhode Island provided that it should 
not expire until after the lapse of twenty-five 
years. The grant by New Hampshire allowed 
the power to be used only in one specified way, 
— by restricting the duties imposable by the 
several states. The grants of Massachusetts, 
New York, New Jersey, and Virginia were not 
to take effect until all the others should go into 
operation. The only thing which Congress 
could do with these acts was to refer them back 
to the several legislatures, with a polite request 
to try to reduce them to something like uni- 
formity. 

Meanwhile, the different states, with their 
different tariff and tonnage acts, began to make 
commercial war upon one another. No sooner 
had the other three New England states virtu- 
ally closed their ports to British shipping than 
Connecticut threw hers wide open, an act which 
she followed up by laying duties upon imports 
171 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

from Massachusetts. Pennsylvania discrimi- 
nated against Delaware, and New Jersey, pil- 
Commerciai lagcd at once by both her greater neigh- 
differtnT^^'^ bours, was compared to a cask tapped 
states at both ends. The conduct of New 

York became especially selfish and blameworthy. 
That rapid growth which was so soon to carry 
the city and the state to a position of primacy 
in the Union had already begun. After the de- 
parture of the British the revival of business 
went on with leaps and bounds. The feeling 
of local patriotism waxed strong, and in no one 
was it more fully manifested than in George 
Clinton, the Revolutionary general, whom the 
people elected governor for six successive terms. 
He was a kinsman of Sir Henry Clinton, the 
British general ; both were descended from Earls 
of Lincoln. By dint of shrewdness and untiring 
push, George Clinton had come to be for the 
moment the most powerful man in the state of 
New York. He had come to look upon the 
state almost as if it were his own private manor, 
and his life was devoted to furthering its inter- 
ests as he understood them. It was his first 
article of faith that New York must be the 
greatest state in the Union. But his conceptions 
of statesmanship were extremely narrow. In his 
mind, the welfare of New York meant the pull- 
ing down and thrusting aside of all her neigh- 
bours and rivals. He was the vigorous and 
172 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

steadfast advocate of every illiberal and exclusive 
measure, and the most uncompromising enemy 
to a closer union of the states. His great popu- 
lar strength and the commercial importance of 
the community in which he held sway made 
him at this time the most dangerous man in 
America. The political victories presently to 
be won by Hamilton, Schuyler, and Livingston, 
without which our grand and pacific Federal 
Union could not have been brought into being, 
were victories won by most desperate fight- 
ing against the dogged opposition of Clinton. 
Under his guidance, the history of New York, 
during the five years following the peace of 
1783, was a shameful story of greedy monopoly 
and sectional hate. Of all the thirteen states, 
none behaved worse except Rhode Island. 

A single instance, which occurred early in 
1787, may serve as an illustration. The citv of 
New York, with its population of 30,000 souls, 
had long been supplied with firewood from 
Connecticut, and with its butter and cheese, 
chickens and garden vegetables, from the thrifty 
farms of New Jersey. This trade, it was ob- 
served, carried thousands of dollars out of the 
city and into the pockets of detested Yankees 
and despised Jerseymen. It was ruinous to 
domestic industry, said the men of New York. 
It must be stopped by those effective remedies 
of the Sangrado school of economic doctors, a 
173 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

navigation act and a protective tariff. Acts were 
accordingly passed, obliging every Yankee sloop 
which came down through Hell Gate, and every 
Jersey market boat which was rowed across from 
Paulus Hook to Cortlandt Street, to pay en- 
trance fees and obtain clearances at the custom- 
house, just as was done by ships from London 
or Hamburg ; and not a cart-load of Connecti- 
cut firewood could be delivered at the back-door 
of a country-house in Beekman Street until it 
should have paid a heavy duty. Great and just 
was the wrath of the farmers and lumbermen. 
The New Jersey legislature made up its mind 
to retaliate. The city of New York had lately 
bought a small patch of ground on Sandy Hook, 
and had built a lighthouse there. This light- 
house was the one weak spot in the heel of 
Achilles where a hostile arrow could strike, and 
New Jersey gave vent to her indignation by 
laying a tax of $i,8oo a year on it. Connecti- 
cut was equally prompt. At a great meeting 
of business men, held at New London, it was 
unanimously agreed to suspend all commercial 
intercourse with New York. Every merchant 
signed an agreement, under penalty of $250 for 
the first offence, not to send any goods what- 
ever into the hated state for a period of twelve 
months. By such retaliatory measures, it was 
hoped that New York might be compelled to 
rescind her odious enactment. But such meet- 
174 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

ings and such resolves bore an ominous likeness 
to the meetings and resolves which in the years 
before 1775 had heralded a state of war; and 
but for the good work done by the federal con- 
vention another five years would scarcely have 
elapsed before shots would have been fired and 
seeds of perennial hatred sown on the shores 
that look toward Manhattan Island. 

To these commercial disputes there were added 
disputes about territory. The chronic quarrel 
between Connecticut and Pennsylvania over the 
valley of Wyoming was decided in Disputes 
the autumn of 1782 by a special fed- ^^o^^^,^''"- 

'. ' , ^ tory ; disas- 

eral court, appointed in accordance ters in the 
with the articles of confederation. wyom°ing, 
The prize was adjudged to Pennsyl- ^7^4 
vania, and the government of Connecticut sub- 
mitted as gracefully as was possible. But new 
troubles were in store for the inhabitants of 
that beautiful region. The traces of the massa- 
cre of 1778 had disappeared, the houses had 
been rebuilt, new settlers had come in, and the 
pretty villages had taken on their old look of 
contentment and thrift, when in the spring of 
1784 there came an accumulation of disasters. 
During a very cold winter great quantities of 
snow had fallen, and lay piled in huge masses 
on the mountain sides, until in March a sudden 
thaw set in. The Susquehanna rose, and over- 
flowed the valley, and great blocks of ice drifted 
175 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

here and there, carrying death and destruction 
with them. Houses, barns, and fences were 
swept away, the cattle were drowned, the fruit 
trees broken down, the stores of food destroyed, 
and over the whole valley there lay a stratum 
of gravel and pebbles. The people were starv- 
ing with cold and hunger, and President Dick- 
inson urged the legislature to send prompt 
relief to the sufferers. But the hearts of the 
members were as flint, and their talk was in- 
credibly wicked. Not a penny would they give 
to help the accursed Yankees. It served them 
right. If they had stayed in Connecticut, where 
they belonged, they would have kept out of 
harm's way. And with a blasphemy thinly veiled 
in phrases of pious unction, the desolation of the 
valley was said to have been contrived by the 
Deity with the express object of punishing these 
trespassers. But the cruelty of the Pennsylva- 
nia legislature was not confined to words. A 
scheme was devised for driving out the settlers 
and partitioning their lands among a company 
of speculators. A force of militia was sent to 
Wyoming, commanded by a truculent creature 
named Patterson. The ostensible purpose was 
to assist in restoring order in the valley, but 
the behaviour of the soldiers w^as such as would 
have disgraced a horde of barbarians. They 
stole what they could find, dealt out blows to the 
men and insults to the women, until their vio- 

176 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

lence was met with violence in return. Then Pat- 
terson sent a letter to President Dickinson, ac- 
cusing the farmers of sedition, and hinting that 
extreme measures were necessary. Having thus, 
as he thought, prepared the way, he attacked 
the settlement, turned some five hundred peo- 
ple out of doors, and burned their houses to 
the ground. The wretched victims, many of 
them tender women, or infirm old men, or lit- 
tle children, were driven into the wilderness at 
the point of the bayonet, and told to find their 
way to Connecticut without further delay. 
Heartrending scenes ensued. Many died of 
exhaustion, or furnished food for wolves. But 
this was more than the Pennsylvania legislature 
had intended. Patterson's zeal had carried him 
too far. He was recalled, and the sheriff of 
Northumberland County was sent, with a posse 
of men, to protect the settlers. Patterson dis- 
obeyed, however, and withdrawing his men to 
a fortified lair in the mountains, kept up a 
guerrilla warfare. All the Connecticut men in 
the neighbouring country flew to arms. Men 
were killed on both sides, and presently Patter- 
son was besieged. A regiment of soldiers was 
then sent from Philadelphia, under Colonel 
Armstrong, who had formerly been on Gates's 
uitaff, the author of the incendiary Newburgh 
address. On arriving in the valley, Armstrong 
held a parley with the Connecticut men, and 
177 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

persuaded them to lay down their arms ; assur- 
ing them on his honour that they should meet 
with no ill treatment, and that their enemy, 
Patterson, should be disarmed also. Having 
thus fallen into this soldier's clutches, they were 
forthwith treated as prisoners. Seventy-six of 
them were handcuffed and sent under guard, 
some to Easton and some to Northumberland, 
where they were thrown into jail.^ 

Great was the indignation in New England 
when these deeds were heard of. The matter 
had become very serious. A war between Con- 
necticut and Pennsylvania might easily grow 
out of it. But the danger was averted through 
a singular feature in the Pennsylvania constitu- 
tion. In order to hold its legislature in check, 
Pennsylvania had a council of censors, which 
was assembled once in seven years in order to 
inquire whether the state had been properly 
governed during the interval. Soon after the 
troubles in Wyoming the regular meeting of 
the censors was held, and the conduct of Arm- 
strong and Patterson was unreservedly con- 
demned. A hot controversy ensued between 
the legislature and the censors, and as the peo- 

1 See Chapman's History of Wyoming, Wilkes-Barre, 
1830; Miner's History of Wyomi?2g, Philadelphia, 1845 ; 
Stone's Poetry and History of Wyoming, New York, 1844; 
Hoyt's Seventeen Townships in the County of Luzerne y Har- 
risburg, 1879. 

178 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

pie set great store by the latter peculiar institu- 
tion, public sympathy was gradually awakened 
for the sufferers. The wickedness of the affair 
began to dawn upon people's minds, and they 
were ashamed of what had been done. Pat- 
terson and Armstrong were frowned down, 
the legislature disavowed their acts, and it was 
ordered that full reparation should be made to 
the persecuted settlers of Wyoming. 

In the Green Mountains and on the upper 
waters of the Connecticut there had been trou- 
ble for many years. In the course of the Re- 
volutionary War, the fierce dispute between 
New York and New Hampshire for the pos- 
session of the Green Mountains came in from 
time to time to influence most curiously the 
course of events. It was closely connected with 
the intrigues against General Schuyler, and thus 
more remotely with the Conway cabal and the 
treason of Arnold. About the time of Bur- 
goyne's invasion the association of the Green 
Mountain Boys endeavoured to cut the Gor- 
dian knot by declaring Vermont an independ- 
ent state, and applying to the Continental Con- 
gress for admission into the Union. Troubles in 
The New York delejrates in Con- t"^?"" 

o Mountains. 

gress succeeded in defeating this 1777-84 
scheme, but the Vermont people went on ana 
framed their constitution. Thomas Chittenden, 
a man of little education but very considerable 
179 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

ability, a farmer and innkeeper/ like Israel 
Putnam, was chosen governor, and held that 
position for many years. New Hampshire thus 
far had not actively opposed these measures, 
but fresh grounds of quarrel were soon at hand. 
Several towns on the east bank of the Con- 
necticut River wished to escape from the juris- 
diction of New Hampshire. They preferred to 
belong to Vermont, because it was not within 
the Union, and accordingly not liable to requi- 
sitions of taxes from the Continental Congress. 
It was conveniently remembered that by the 
original grant, in the reign of Charles II., New 
Hampshire extended only sixty miles from the 
coast. Vermont was at first inclined to assent, 
but finding the scheme unpopular in Congress, 
and not wishing to offend that body, she 
changed her mind. The towns on both banks 
of the river then tried to organize themselves 
into a middle state, — a sort of Lotharingia 
on the banks of this New World Rhine, — to 
be called New Connecticut. By this time New 
Hampshire was aroused, and she called atten- 
tion to the fact that she still believed herself 
entitled to dominion over the whole of Ver- 
mont. Massachusetts now began to suspect 

^ I have noticed that to readers unfamiliar with the early- 
history of New England, the mention of these occupations is 
misleading. Both Putnam and Chittenden were gentlemen 
of eminendy respectable ancestry . 

i8o 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

that the upshot of the matter would be the 
partition of the whole disputed territory between 
New Hampshire and New York, and, ransack- 
ing her ancient grants and charters, she decided 
to set up a claim on her own part to the south- 
ernmost towns in Vermont. Thus goaded on 
all sides, Vermont adopted an aggressive policy. 
She not only annexed the towns east of the 
Connecticut River, but also asserted sover- 
eignty over the towns in New York as far as 
the Hudson. New York sent troops to the 
threatened frontier. New Hampshire prepared 
to do likewise, and for a moment war seemed 
inevitable. But here, as in so many other in- 
stances, Washington appeared as peacemaker, 
and prevailed upon Governor Chittenden to use 
his influence in getting the dangerous claims 
withdrawn.^ After the spring of 1784 the out- 
look was less stormy in the Green Mountains. 
The conflictino: claims were allowed to lie dor- 
mant, but the possibilities of mischief remained, 
and the Vermont question was not finally set- 
tled until after the adoption of the Federal 
Constitution. Meanwhile, on the debatable 
frontier between Vermont and New York the 
embers of hatred smouldered. Barns and 

1 The story of the Vermont difEculties has been well 
summed up by Hildreth, History of the United States, vol. 
iii. pp. 407-410. See, also, Benton, The Vermont Settler i 
and the New York Land Speculators , Minneapolis, 1894. 
181 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

houses were set on fire, and belated wayfarers 
were found mysteriously murdered in the 
depths of the forest. 

Incidents like these of Wyoming and Ver- 
mont seem trivial, perhaps, when contrasted 
with the lurid tales of border warfare in older 
times between half-civilized peoples of mediaeval 
Europe, as we read them in the pages of Frois- 
sart and Sir Walter Scott. But their historic 
lesson is none the less clear. Though they lift 
the curtain but a little way, they show us a 
glimpse of the untold dangers and horrors from 
which the adoption of our Federal Constitution 
has so thoroughly freed us that we can only 
with some effort realize how narrowly we have 
escaped them. It is fit that they should be 
borne in mind, that we may duly appreciate 
the significance of the reign of law and order 
which has been established on this continent 
during the greater part of a century. When 
reported in Europe, such incidents were held 
to confirm the opinion that the American con- 
federacy was going to pieces. With quarrels 
about trade and quarrels about boundaries, we 
seemed to be treading the old-fashioned paths 
of anarchy, even as they had been trodden in 
other ages and other parts of the world. It was 
natural that people in Europe should think so, 
because there was no historic precedent to help 
them in forming a different opinion. No one 
182 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

could possibly foresee that within five years a 
number of gentlemen at Philadelphia, contain- 
ing among themselves an amount of political 
sagacity such as has seldom been brought to- 
gether within the walls of a single room, would 
amicably discuss the situation and agree upon a 
new system of government wherebv the dangers 
might be once for all averted. Still less could 
any one foresee that these gentlemen would not 
only agree upon a scheme among themselves, 
but would actually succeed, without serious 
civil dissension, in making the people of thir- 
teen states adopt, defend, and cherish it. His- 
tory afforded no example of so large an act of 
constructive statesmanship. It was, moreover, 
a strange and apparently fortuitous combination 
of circumstances that were now preparing the 
way for it and making its accomplishment pos- 
sible. No one could forecast the future. When 
our ministers and agents in Europe raised the 
question as to making commercial treaties, they 
were disdainfully asked whether Euro- one nation 
pean powers were expected to deal or thirteen? 
with thirteen governments or with one. If it 
was answered that the United States constituted 
a single government so far as their relations 
with foreign powers v/ere concerned, then we 
were forthwith twitted with our failure to keep 
our engagements with England with regard to 
the loyalists and the collection of private debts. 

183 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

Yes, we see, said the European diplomats ; the 
United States are one nation to-day and thir- 
teen to-morrow, according as may seem to sub- 
serve their selfish interests. Jefferson, at Paris, 
was told again and again that it was useless for 
the French government to enter into any agree- 
ment with the United States, as there was no 
certainty that it would be fulfilled on our part ; 
and the same things were said all over Europe. 
Toward the close of the war most of the Euro- 
pean nations had seemed ready to enter into 
commercial arrangements with the United 
States, but all save Holland speedily lost in- 
terest in the subject. John Adams had suc- 
ceeded in making a treaty with Holland in 
1782. Frederick the Great treated us more 
civilly than other sovereigns. One of the last 
acts of his life was to conclude a treaty for ten 
years with the United States ; asserting the 
principle that free ships make free goods, tak- 
ing arms and military stores out of the class of 
contraband, agreeing to refrain from privateer- 
ing even in case of war between the two coun- 
tries, and in other respects showing a liberal 
and enlightened spirit. 

This treaty was concluded in 1786. It scarcely 
touched the subject of international trade in 
time of peace, but it was valuable as regarded 
the matters it covered, and in the midst of the 
general failure of American diplomacy in Europe 
184 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

It fell pleasantly upon our ears. Our diplomacy 
had failed because our weakness had been pro- 
claimed to the world. We were bullied by Eng- 
land, insulted by France and Spain, and looked 
askance at in Holland. The humiliating posi- 
tion in which our ministers were placed by the 
beggarly poverty of Congress was something 
almost beyond credence. It was by no means 
unusual for the superintendent of finance, when 
hard pushed for money, to draw upon our for- 
eign ministers, and then sell the drafts for cash. 
This was not only not unusual ; it was an es- 
tablished custom. It was done again and again, 
when there was not the smallest ground for sup- 
posing that the minister upon whom the draft 
was made would have any funds wherewith to 
meet it. He must go and beg the money. That 
was part of his duty as envoy, — to solicit loans 
without security for a government that coMd 
not raise enough money by taxation to defray 
its current expenses. It was sickening work. 
Just before John Adams had been appointed 
minister to England, and while he was visiting 
in London, he suddenly learned that 
drafts upon him had been presented American 
to his bankers in Amsterdam to the "dams beg" 
amount of more than a million iior- gmg in hoI- 
ins. Less than half a million florins 
were on hand to meet these demands, and un- 
less something were done at once the greatel 

185 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

part of this paper would go back to America 
protested. Adams lost not a moment in start- 
ing for Holland. In these modern days of pre- 
cision in travel, when we can translate space into 
time, the distance between London and Amster- 
dam is eleven hours. It was accomplished by 
Adams, after innumerable delavs and vexations 
and no little danger, in three weeks. The bank- 
ers had contrived, by ingenious excuses, to keep 
the drafts from going to protest until the min- 
ister's arrival, but the gazettes were full of the 
troubles of Congress and the bickerings of the 
states, and everybody was suspicious. Adams 
applied in vain to the regency of Amsterdam. 
The promise of the American government was 
not regarded as valid security for a sum equiva- 
lent to about three hundred thousand dollars. 
The members of the regency were polite, but 
inexorable. They could not make a loan on 
such terms; it was unbusinesslike and contrary 
to precedent. Finding them immovable, Adams 
was forced to apply to professional usurers and 
Jew brokers, from whom, after three weeks of 
perplexity and humiliation, he obtained a loan 
at exorbitant interest, and succeeded in meeting 
the drafts. It was only too plain, as he mourn- 
fully confessed, that American credit was dead.^ 

^ The story is told in John Adams's Works y\\\\. i 53-1 91. 
In a letter called forth by the affair, Franklin thus hits the nail 
on the head: ** I hope these mischievous events will at length 
186 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

Such were the trials of our American ministers 
in Europe in the dark days of the League of 
Friendship. It was not a soHtary, but a typi- 
cal, instance. John Jay's experience at the un- 
friendly court of Spain was perhaps even more 
trying. 

European governments might treat us with 
cold disdain, and European bankers might pro- 
nounce our securities worthless, but there was 
one quarter of the world from which even worse 
measure was meted out to us. Of all the bar- 
barous communities with which the civilized 
world has had to deal in modern times, perhaps 
none have made so much trouble as the Mus- 
sulman states on the southern shore of the 
Mediterranean. After the breaking up of the 
great Moorish kingdoms of the Middle Ages, 
this region had fallen under the nominal con- 
trol of the Turkish sultans as lords paramount 
of the orthodox Mohammedan world. Its mis- 
erable populations became the prey of banditti. 
Swarms of half-savage chieftains settled down 
upon the land like locusts, and out of such a 

convince our people of the truth of what I long since wrote 
to them, that the foiuidation of credit abroad must be laid at 
home. When the States have not faith enough in a Congress 
of their own choosing to trust it with money for the payment 
of their common debt, how can they expect that that Con- 
gress should meet with credit when it wants to borrow more 
money for their use from strangers. ' ' Franklin to John Adams ^ 
Passy, 5 Feb., 1784. 

187 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

pandemonium of robbery and murder as has 
scarcely been equalled in historic times the pi- 
The Bar- ^^tc states of Morocco and Algiers, 
bary pirates Tunis and THpoH, gradually emerged. 
Of these communities history has not one good 
word to say. In these fair lands, once illustrious 
for the genius and virtues of a Hannibal and 
the profound philosophy of St. Augustine, there 
grew up some of the most terrible despotisms 
ever known to the world. The things done 
daily by the robber sovereigns were such as to 
make a civilized imagination recoil with horror. 
One of these cheerful creatures, who reigned at 
the beginning of the eighteenth century, and 
was called Muley Ismail, especially prided him- 
self on his peculiar skill in mounting a horse. 
Resting his left hand upon the horse's neck, 
as he sprang into the saddle he simultaneously 
swung the sharp scimitar in his right hand so 
deftly as to cut off the head of the groom who 
held the bridle.^ From his behaviour in these 
sportive moods one may judge what he was 
capable of on serious occasions. He was a fair 
sample of the Barbary monarchs. The foreign 
policy of these wretches was summed up in 
piracy and blackmail. Their corsairs swept the 
Mediterranean and ventured far out upon the 
ocean, capturing merchant vessels, and murder- 

^ See Busnot, History of the Reign of Muley Ismail, Lon- 
don, 171 5, p. 35- 

188 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

ing or enslaving their crews. Of the rich booty, 
a fixed proportion was paid over to the robber 
sovereign, and the rest was divided among the 
gang. So lucrative was this business that it at- 
tracted hardy ruffians from all parts of Europe, 
and the misery they inflicted upon mankind 
during four centuries was beyond calculation. 
One of their favourite practices was the kid- 
napping of eminent or wealthy persons, in the 
hope of extorting ransom. Cervantes and Vin- 
cent de Paul were among the celebrated men 
who thus tasted the horrors of Moorish slavery; 
but it was a calamity that might fall to the lot 
of any man or woman, and it was but rarely 
that the victims ever regained their freedom. 

Against these pirates the governments of 
Europe contended in vain. Swift cruisers fre- 
quently captured their ships, and from the 
days of Joan of Arc down to the days of Na- 
poleon their skeletons swung from long rows 
of gibbets on all the coasts of Europe, as a 
terror and a warning. But their losses were 
easily repaired, and sometimes they cruised in 
fleets of seventy or eighty sail, defying the 
navies of England and France. It was not 
until after England, in Nelson's time, had ac- 
quired supremacy in the Mediterranean that 
this dreadful scourge was destroyed. Ameri- 
cans, however, have just ground for pride in 
recollecting that their government was fore- 
i8q 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

most in chastising these pirates in their own 
harbours. The exploits of our little navy in 
the Mediterranean at the beginning of the pre- 
sent century form an interesting episode in 
American history, but in the weak days of the 
Confederation our commerce was plundered 
with impunity, and American citi- 

Amencan . 

citizens zcns Were seized and sold into slav- 

' ""^^^^ ery in the markets of Algiers and 
Tripoli. One reason for the long survival of 
this villainy was the low state of humanity 
among European nations. An Englishman's 
sympathy was but feebly aroused by the plun- 
der of Frenchmen, and the bigoted Spaniard 
looked on with approval so long as it was Pro- 
testants that were kidnapped and bastinadoed. 
In 1783 Lord Sheffield published a pamphlet 
on the commerce of the United States, in which 
he shamelessly declared that the Barbary pirates 
were really useful to the great maritime powers, 
because they tended to keep the weaker nations 
out of their share in the carrying trade. This, 
he thought, was a valuable offset to the Em- 
press Catherine's device of the armed neutral- 
ity, whereby small nations were protected ; and 
on this wicked theory, as Franklin tells us, Lon- 
don merchants had been heard to say that " if 
there were no Algiers, it would be worth Eng- 
land's while to build one." It was largely be- 
cause of such feelings that the great states of 
190 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

Europe so long persisted in the craven policy 
of paying blackmail to the robbers, instead of 
joining in a crusade and destroying them. 

In 1786 Congress felt it necessary to take 
measures for protecting the lives and liberties 
of American citizens. The person who was gro- 
tesquely called " Emperor" of Morocco at that 
time was different from most of his kind. He 
had a taste for reading, and had thus caught a 
glimmering of the enlightened liberalism which 
French philosophers were preaching. He wished 
to be thought a benevolent despot, and with M o- 
rocco, accordingly, Congress succeeded in making 
a treaty. But nothing could be done with the 
other pirate states without paying blackmail. 
Few scenes in our history are more amusing or 
irritating than the interview of John Adams 
with an envoy from Tripoli in London. The 
oily-tongued barbarian, with his soft voice and 
his bland smile, asseverating that his only inter- 
est in life was to do good and make other peo- 
ple happy, stands out in fine contrast with the 
blunt, straightforward, and truthful New Eng- 
lander ; and their conversation reminds one of 
theoldstoryofCoeur-de- Lion with his curtal-axe 
and Saladin with the blade that cut the silken 
cushion. Adams felt sure that the fellow was 
either saint or devil, but could not quite tell 
which. The envoy's love for mankind was so 
great that he could not bear the thought of 
191 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

hostility between the Americans and the Bar- 
bary States, and he suggested that everything 
Tripoli de- might be happily arranged for a mil- 
Tall^ebrt" ^^on dolkrs or so. Adams thought 
ary, 17S6 it better to fight than to pay tribute. 
It would be cheaper in the end, as well as more 
manly. At the same time, it was better econ- 
omy to pay a million dollars at once than waste 
many times that sum in war risks and loss of 
trade. But Congress could do neither one thing 
nor the other. It was too poor to build a navy, 
and too poor to buy off the pirates ; and so 
for several years to come American ships were 
burned and American sailors enslaved with 
impunity. With the memory of such wrongs 
deeply graven in his heart, it was natural that 
John Adams, on becoming President of the 
United States, should bend his energies toward 
founding a strong American navy. 

A government touches the lowest point of 
ignominy when it confesses its inability to pro- 
tect the lives and property of its citizens. A 
Con ress govcmmcnt which has come to this 
unable to has failed in discharging the primary 
American function of govcmment, and forth- 
citizens with ccascs to have any reason for ex- 

isting. In March, 1786, Grayson wrote to Mad- 
ison that several members of Congress thouglit 
seriously of recommending a general convention 
for remodelling the government. " I have not 
192 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

made up my mind," says Grayson, "whether it 
would not be better to bear the ills we have than 
fly to those we know not of. I am, however, in 
no doubt about the weakness of the federal 
government. If it remains much longer in its 
present state of imbecility, we shall be one of 
the most contemptible nations on the face of the 
earth." " It is clear to me as A B C," said 
Washington, " that an extension of federal pow- 
ers would make us one of the most happy, 
wealthy, respectable, and powerful nations that 
ever inhabited the terrestrial globe. Without 
them we shall soon be everything which is the 
direct reverse. I predict the worst consequences 
from a half-starved, limping government, always 
moving upon crutches and tottering at every 
step." 

There is no telling how long the wretched 
state of things which followed the Revolution 
might have continued, had not the crisis been 
precipitated by the wild attempts of the several 
states to remedy the distress of the people by 
legislation. That financial distress was wide- 
spread and deep-seated was not to be Financial 
denied. At the beginning of the war ^Z 
the amount of accumulated capital in political crisis 
the country had been very small. The great 
majority of the people did little more than get 
from the annual yield of their farms or planta- 
tions enough to meet the current expenses of 

^93 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

the year. Outside of agriculture the chief re= 
sources were the carrying trade, the exchange 
of commodities with England and the West 
Indies, and the cod and whale fisheries ; and in 
these occupations many people had grown rich. 
The war had destroyed all these sources of 
revenue. Imports and exports had alike been 
stopped, so that there was a distressing scarcity 
of some of the commonest household articles. 
The enemy's navy had kept us from the fish- 
eries. Before the war, the dockyards of Nan- 
tucket were ringing with the busy sound of adze 
and hammer, ropewalks covered the island, and 
two hundred keels sailed yearly in quest of 
spermaceti. At the return of peace, the docks 
were silent and grass grew in the streets. The 
carrying trade and the fisheries began soon to 
revive, but it was some years before the old pros- 
perity was restored. The war had also wrought 
serious damage to agriculture, and in some parts 
of the country the direct destruction of property 
by the enemy's troops had been very great. To 
all these causes of poverty there was added the 
hopeless confusion due to an inconvertible paper 
currency. The worst feature of this financial 
device is that it not only impoverishes people, 
but bemuddles their brains by creating a false 
and fleeting show of prosperity. By violently 
disturbing apparent values, it always brings on 
an era of wild speculation and extravagance in 
194 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

living, followed by sudden collapse and pro- 
tracted suffering. In such crises the poorest peo- 
ple, those who earn their bread by the sweat of 
their brows and have no margin of accumulated 
capital, always suffer the most. Above all men, 
it is the labouring man who needs sound money 
and steady values. We have seen all these 
points amply illustrated since the War of Se- 
cession. After the War of Independence, when 
the margin of accumulated capital was so much 
smaller, the misery was much greater. While 
the paper money lasted there was marked ex- 
travagance in living, and complaints were loud 
against the speculators, especially those who 
operated in breadstuffs. Washington said he 
would like to hang them all on a gallows higher 
than that of Haman ; but they were, after all, 
but the inevitable products of this abnormal 
state of things, and the more guilty criminals 
were the demagogues who went about preaching 
the doctrine that the poor man needs cheap 
money. After the collapse of this continental 
currency in 1780, it seemed as if there were no 
money in the country, and at the peace the re- 
newal of trade with England seemed at first to 
make matters worse. The brisk importation of 
sorely needed manufactured goods, which then 
began, would naturally have been paid for in 
the south by indigo, rice, and tobacco, in the 
middle states by exports of wheat and furs, and 

19s 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

in New England by the profits of the fisheries, 
the shipping, and the West India trade. But 
in the southern and middle states the necessary- 
revival of agriculture could not be effected in a 
moment, and British legislation against Ameri- 
can shipping and the West India trade fell with 
crippling force upon New England. Conse- 
quently, we had little else but specie with which 
to pay for imports, and the country was soon 
drained of what little specie there was. In the 
absence of a circulating medium there was a re- 
version to the practice of barter, and the revival 
of business was thus further impeded. Whis- 
key in North Carolina, tobacco in Virginia, did 
duty as measures of value ; and Isaiah Thomas, 
editor of the Worcester *' Spy," announced that 
he would receive subscriptions for his paper in 
salt pork. 

It is worth while, in this connection, to ob- 
serve what this specie was, the scarcity of which 
created so much embarrassment. Until 1785 
no national coinage was established, and none 
was issued until 1793. English, French, Span- 
ish, and German coins, of various and uncertain 
value, passed from hand to hand. Beside the 
State of the nincpcnccs and fourpence-ha'-pennies, 
coinage thcrc wcrc bits and half-bits, pistareens, 

picayunes, and fips. Of gold pieces there were 
the Johannes, or joe, the doubloon, the moidore 
and pistole, with English and French guineas, 
196 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

carolins, ducats, and chequins. Of coppers 
there were English pence and halfpence and 
French sous ; and pennies were issued at local 
mints in Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The English 
shilling had everywhere degenerated in value, 
but differently in different localities ; and among 
silver pieces the Spanish dollar, from Louisiana 
and Cuba, had begun to supersede it as a mea- 
sure of value. In New England the shilling had 
sunk from nearly one fourth to one sixth of a 
dollar; in New York to one eighth; in North 
Carolina to one tenth. It was partly for this rea- 
son that in devising a national coinage the more 
uniform dollar was adopted as the unit. At the 
same time the decimal system of division was 
adopted instead of the cumbrous English sys- 
tem, and the result was our present admirably 
simple currency, which we owe to Gouverneur 
Morris, aided as to some points by Thomas 
Jefferson. During the period of the Confedera- 
tion, the chaotic state of the currency was a 
serious obstacle to trade, and it afforded end- 
less opportunities for fraud and extortion. Clip- 
ping and counterfeiting were carried to such 
lengths that every moderately cautious person, 
in taking payment in hard cash, felt it necessary 
to keep a small pair of scales beside him and 
carefully weigh each coin, after narrowly scru- 
tinizing its stamp and deciphering its legend. 
197 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

In view of all these complicated impediments 

to business on the morrow of a long and costly 

war, it was not strange that the whole country 

was in some measure pauperized. The cost of 

the war, estimated in cash, had been 

Cost of the ' J 

war 5 Rob- about $170,000,000 — a huge sum 
and his™^ if wc considcr the circumstances of 
immense the country at that time. To meet 
this crushing indebtedness Mr. Hil- 
dreth reckons the total amount raised by the 
states, whether by means of repudiated paper 
or of taxes, down to 1784, as not more than 
130,000,000. No wonder if the issue of such 
a struggle seemed quite hopeless. In many 
parts of the country, by the year 1786, the 
payment of taxes had com^e to be regarded as 
an amiable eccentricity. At one moment, early 
in 1782, there was not a single dollar in the 
treasury. That the government had in any way 
been able to finish the war, after the downfall 
of its paper money, was due to the gigantic 
efforts of one great man, — Robert Morris of 
Pennsylvania. This statesman was born in Eng- 
land, but he had come to Philadelphia in his 
boyhood, and had amassed a large fortune, 
which he devoted without stint to the service 
of his adopted country. Though opposed to 
the Declaration of Independence as rash and 
premature, he had, nevertheless, signed his 
name to that document, and scarcely any one 
198 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

had contributed more to the success of the 
war.^ It was he who raised the money which 
enabled Washington to complete the great 
campaign of Trenton and Princeton. In 1781 
he was made superintendent of finance, and by 
dint of every imaginable device of hard-pressed 
ingenuity he contrived to support the brilHant 
work which began at the Cowpens and ended 
at Yorktown. He established the Bank of 
North America as an instrument by which gov- 
ernment loans might be negotiated. Sometimes 
his methods were such as doctors call heroic, as 
when he made sudden drafts upon our min- 
isters in Europe after the manner already de- 
scribed. In every dire emergency he was Wash- 
ington's chief reliance. It was of ill omen for 
the fortunes of the weak and disorderly Con- 
federation that in 1784, after three years of 
herculean struggle with impossibilities, this stout 
heart and sagacious head could no longer wea- 
ther the storm. The task of creating wealth 
out of nothing had become too arduous and 
too thankless to be endured. Robert Morris 
resigned his place, and it was taken by a con- 
gressional committee of finance, under whose 

1 Probably the winning of independence was due more to 
Morris than to any other man except Washington. Copious 
data for studying his career are collected in Sumner's The 
Finafuier and Finances of the American Revolution, 2 vols.. 
New York, 1891. 

199 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

management the disorders only hurried to a 
crisis. 

By 1786, under the universal depression and 
want of confidence, all trade had well-nigh 
stopped, and political quackery, with its cheap 
and dirty remedies, had full control of the field. 
In the very face of miseries so plainly traceable 
to the deadly paper currency, it may seem strange 
that people should now have begun to clamour 
for a renewal of the experiment which had 
worked so much evil. Yet so it was. As starv- 
ing men are said to dream of dainty banquets, 
TKo ... <. so now a craze for fictitious wealth in 
for paper thc shapc of paper money ran like an 

money, 1786 . , • 1 1 i ' rr^i 

epidemic through the country, i here 
was a Barmecide feast of . economic vagaries; 
only now it was the several states that sought 
to apply the remedy, each in its own way. And 
when we have threaded the maze of this rash 
legislation, we shall the better understand that 
clause in our federal constitution which forbids 
the making of laws impairing the obligation 
of contracts. The events of 1786 impressed 
upon men's minds more forcibly than ever the 
wretched and disorderly condition of the coun- 
try, and went far toward calling into existence 
the needful popular sentiment in favour of an 
overruling central government. 

The disorders assumed very different forms 
in the different states, and brought out a great 
200 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

diversity of opinion as to the causes of the dis- 
tress and the efficacy of the proposed remedies. 
Only two states out of the thirteen — Con- 
necticut and Delaware — escaped the infection, 
but, on the other hand, it was only in seven 
states that the paper money party prevailed in 
the legislatures. North Carolina issued a large 
amount of paper, and, in order to get it into 
circulation as quickly as possible, the state gov- 
ernment proceeded to buy tobacco with it, pay- 
ing double the specie value of the tobacco. As 
a natural consequence, the paper dollar instantly 
fell to seventy cents, and went on declining. In 
South Carolina an issue was tried 

, -111 Agitation m 

somewhat more cautiously, but the southern and 
planters soon refused to take the paper ™'^'^^' '^^^" 
at its face value. Coercive measures were then 
attempted. Planters and merchants were urged 
to sign a pledge not to discriminate between 
paper and gold, and if any one dared refuse 
the fanatics forthwith attempted to make it hot 
for him. A kind of" Kuklux " society was or- 
g^anized at Charleston, known as the "Hint 
Club." Its purpose was to hint to such people 
that they had better look out. If they did not 
mend their ways, it was unnecessary to inform 
them more explicitly what they might expect. 
Houses were combustible then as now, and 
the use of firearms was well understood. In 
Georgia the legislature itself attempted coercioa 
20 1 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

Paper money was made a legal tender in spite 
of strong opposition, and a law was passed pro- 
hibiting any planter or merchant from exporting 
any produce without taking affidavit that he had 
never refused to receive this scrip at its full face 
value. But somehow people found that the 
more it was sought to keep up the paper bv 
dint of threats and forcing acts, the faster its 
value fell. Virginia had issued bills of credit 
during the campaign of 178 1, but it was enacted 
at the same time that they should not be a legal 
tender after the next January. The influence of 
Washington, Madison, and Mason was effec- 
tively brought to bear in favour of sound cur- 
rency, and the people of Virginia were but 
slightly affected by the craze of 1786. In the 
autumn of that year a proposition from two 
counties for an issue of paper was defeated in 
the legislature by a vote of eighty-five to seven- 
teen, and no more was heard of the matter. In 
Maryland, after a very obstinate fight, a rag 
money bill was carried in the house of repre- 
sentatives, but the senate threw it out ; and the 
measure was thus postponed until the discussion 
over the federal constitution superseded it in 
popular interest. Pennsylvania had warily be- 
gun in May, 1785, to issue a million dollars in 
bills of credit, which were not made a legal 
tender for the payment of private debts. They 
were mainly loaned to farmers on mortgage, and 
202 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

were received by the state as an equivalent for 
specie in the payment of taxes. By August, 
2786, even this carefully guarded paper had 
fallen some twelve cents below par, — not a bad 
showing for such a year as that. New York 
moved somewhat less cautiously. A million 
dollars were issued in bills of credit receivable 
for the custom-house duties, which were then 
paid into the state treasury ; and these bills were 
made a legal tender for all money received in 
lawsuits. At the same time the New Jersey 
legislature passed a bill for issuing half a mil- 
lion paper dollars, to be a legal tender in all 
business transactions. The bill was vetoed by 
the governor in council. The aged Governor 
Livingston was greatly respected by the people ; 
and so the mob at Elizabethtown, which had 
duly planted a stake and dragged his effigy up 
to it, refrained from inflicting the last indignities 
upon the image, and burned that of one of the 
members of the council instead. At the next 
session the governor yielded, and the rag money 
was issued. But an unforeseeii difficulty arose. 
Most of the dealings of New Jersey people were 
in the cities of New York and Philadelphia, and 
in both cities the merchants refused their paper, 
so that it speedily became worthless. 

The business of exchange was thus fast get- 
ting into hopeless confusion. It has been said 
of Bradshaw's Railway Guide, the indispensable 
203 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

companion of the traveller in England, that no 
man can study it for an hour without qualifying 
himself for a lunatic asylum. But Bradshaw is 
pellucid clearness compared with the American 
tables of exchange in 1786, with their medley of 
dollars and shillings, moidores, and pistareens. 
The addition of half a dozen different kinds of 
paper created such a labyrinth as no human in- 
tellect could explore. No wonder that men were 
counted wise who preferred to take whiskey and 
pork instead. Nobody who had a yard of cloth 
to sell could tell how much it was worth. But 
even worse than all this was the swift and certain 
renewal of bankruptcy which so many states 
were preparing for themselves. 

Nowhere did the warning come so quickly or so 
sharply as in New England. Connecticut, indeed, 
as already observed, came off scot-free. She had 
issued a little paper money soon after the battle 
of Lexington, but had stopped it about the time 
of the surrender of Burgoyne. In 1780 she had 
wisely and summarily adjusted all relations be- 
tween debtor and creditor, and the crisis of 1786 
found her people poor enough, no doubt, but 
able to wait for better times and indisposed to 
adopt violent remedies. It was far otherwise 
in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. 

Distress in • i i 

NewEng- These were preemmently the man- 
^^^^ time states of the Union, and upon 

them the blows aimed by England at American 

204 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

commerce had fallen most SLverely. It was these 
two maritime states that suftered most from the 
cutting down of the carrying trade and the re- 
striction of intercourse with the West Indies. 
These things worked injury to shipbuilding, to 
the exports of lumber and oil and salted fish, 
even to the manufacture of Medford rum. No- 
where had the normal machinery of business 
been thrown out of gear so extensively as in 
these two states, and in Rhode Island there 
was the added disturbance due to a prolonged 
occupation by the enemy's troops. Nowhere, 
perhaps, was there a larger proportion of the 
population in debt, and in these preeminently 
commercial communities private debts were a 
heavier burden and involved more personal suf- 
fering than in the somewhat patriarchal system 
of life in Virginia or South Carolina. In the 
time of which we are now treating, imprison- 
ment for debt was common. High-minded but 
unfortunate men were carried to jail, and herded 
with thieves and ruffians in loathsome dungeons, 
for the crime of owing a hundred dollars which 
they could not promptly pay. Under such cir- 
cumstances a commercial disturbance, involving 
widespread debt, entailed an amount of personal 
suffering and humiliation of which, in these 
kinder days, we can form no adequate concep- 
tion. It tended to make the debtor an outlaw, 
ready to entertain schemes for the subversion 
205 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

of society. In the r.isis of 1786, the agitation 
in Rhode Island and Massachusetts reached 
white heatj and things were done which alarmed 
the whole country. But the course of events 
was different: in the two states. In Rhode Is- 
land the agitators obtained control of the gov- 
ernment, and the result was a paroxysm of 
tyranny. In Massachusetts the agitators failed 
to secure control of the government, and the 
result was a paroxysm of rebellion. 

The debates over paper money in the Rhode 
Island legislature began in 1785, but the advo- 
cates of a sound currency were victorious. These 
men were roundly abused in the newspapers, 
and in the next spring election most of them 
lost their seats. The legislature of 1786 showed 
an overwhelming majority in favour of paper 
money. The farmers from the inland towns 
were unanimous in supporting the measure. 
They could not see the difference between the 
state making a dollar out of paper and a dollar 
out of gold. The idea that the value did not 
lie in the government stamp they dismissed as 
an idle crotchet, a wire-drawn theory, worthy 
only of "literary fellows." What they could 
see v/as the glaring fact that they had no money, 
hard or soft ; and they wanted something that 
would satisfy their creditors and buy new gowns 
for their wives, whose raiment was unquestion- 
ably the worse for wear. On the other hand, 
206 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

the merchants from seaports Hke Providence, 
Newport, and Bristol understood the difference 
between real money and the promissory notes 
of a bankrupt government, but they were in a 
hopeless minority. Half a million dollars were 
issued in scrip, to be loaned to the farmers on a 
mortgage of their real estate. No one could 
obtain the scrip without giving a mortgage for 
twice the amount, and it was thought that this 
security would make it as good as gold. But 
the depreciation began instantly. When the 
worthy farmers went to the store for dry goods 
or sugar, and found the prices rising with dread- 
ful rapidity, they were at first astonished, and 
then enraged. The trouble, as they truly said, 
was with the wicked merchants, who would not 
take the paper dollars at their face Rag money 
value. These men were thus thwart- ^'"^f°;'of 

in Rhode 

ing the government, and must be island ; the 
punished. An act was accordingly Ye""mea- 
hurried through the legislature, com- ^""'^^ 
manding every one to take paper as an equiva- 
lent for gold, under penalty of five hundred 
dollars fine and loss of the right of suffrage. 
The merchants in the cities thereupon shut up 
their shops. During the summer of 1786 all 
business was at a standstill in Newport and Pro- 
vidence, except in the bar-rooms. There and 
about the market-places men spent their time 
angrily discussing politics, and scarcely a day 
207 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

passed without street-fights, which at times grew 
into riots. In the country, too, no less than in 
the cities, the goddess of discord reigned. The 
farmers determined to starve the city people 
into submission, and they entered into an agree- 
ment not to send any produce into the cities 
until the merchants should open their shops and 
begin selling their goods for paper at its face 
value. Not wishing to lose their pigs and butter 
and grain, they tried to dispose of them in Bos- 
ton and New York, and in the coast towns of 
Connecticut. But in all these places their pro- 
ceedings had awakened such lively disgust that 
placards were posted in the taverns warning 
purchasers against farm produce from Rhode 
Island. Disappointed in these quarters, the 
farmers threw awav their milk, used their corn 
for fuel, and let their apples rot on the ground, 
rather than supply the detested merchants. 
Food grew scarce in Providence and Newport, 
and in the latter city a mob of sailors attempted 
unsuccessfully to storm the provision stores. 
The farmers were threatened with armed vio- 
lence. Town meetings were held all over the 
state, to discuss the situation, and how long 
they might have talked to no purpose none can 
say, when all at once the matter was brought 
into court. A cabinet-maker in Newport named 
Trevett went into a meat-market kept by one 
John Weeden, and selecting a joint of meat, 
208 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

offered paper in payment. Weeden refused to 
take the paper except at a heavy discount. Tre- 
vett went to bed supperless, and next morning 
informed against the obstinate butcher for dis- 
obedience to the forcing act. Should the court 
find him guilty, it would be a good speculation 
for Trevett, for half of the five hundred dollars 
fine was to go to the informer. Hard-money 
men feared lest the court might prove sub- 
servient to the legislature, since that body pos- 
sessed the power of removing the five judges. 
The case was tried in September amid furious 
excitement. Huge crowds gathered about the 
court-house and far down the street, screaming 
and cheering like a crowd on the night of a 
presidential election. The judges were clear- 
headed men, not to be browbeaten. They de- 
clared the forcing act unconstitutional, and dis- 
missed the complaint. Popular wrath then 
turned upon them. A special session of the 
legislature was convened, four of the judges were 
removed, and a new forcing act was prepared. 
This act provided that no man could vote at 
elections or hold any office without taking a 
test oath promising to receive paper money at 
par. But this was going too far. Many soft- 
money men were not wild enough to support 
such a measure; among the farmers there were 
some who had grown tired of seeing their pro- 
duce spoiled on their hands ; and many of the 
209 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

richest merchants had announced their intention 
of moving out of the state. The new forcing 
act accordingly failed to pass, and presently the 
old one was repealed. The paper dollar had 
been issued in May; in November it passed 
for sixteen cents. 

These outrageous proceedings awakened 
disgust and alarm among sensible people every- 
where, and Rhode Island was ruthlessly reviled 
and made fun of. One clause of the forcing act 
had provided that if a debtor should offer paper 
to his creditor and the creditor should refuse 
to take it at par, the debtor might carry his rag 
money to court and deposit it with the judge ; 
and the judge must thereupon issue a certificate 
discharging the debt. The form of certificate 
began with the words " Know Ye," and forth- 
with the unhappy little state was nicknamed 
Rogues' Island, the home of Know Ye men and 
Know Ye measures. 

While scorn was thus poured out upon 
Rhode Island, much sympathy was felt for the 
government of Massachusetts, which was called 
Rag money upon thus early to put down armed 
defeated in rebellion. The pressure of debt was 

Massachu- , i r i • i it* r 

setts; the keenly relt m the rural districts or 
Shays in- Massachusctts. It is estimated that 

surrection, 

Aug. 1786- the private debts in the state amounted 

Feb. 1787 „ 1 , , 

to some ?7,ooo,ooo, and the state s 
arrears to the federal government amounted 
210 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

to some $7,000,000 more. Adding to these 
sums the arrears of bounties due to the soldiers, 
and the annual cost of the state, county, and 
town governments, there was reached an aggre- 
gate equivalent to a tax of more than $50 on 
every man, woman, and child in this population 
of 379,000 souls. Upon every head of a family 
the average burden was some $200, at a time 
when most farmers would have thought such a 
sum yearly a princely income. In those days 
of scarcity most of them did not set eyes on so 
much as J50 in the course of a year, and happy 
was he who had tucked away two or three 
golden guineas or moidores in an old stocking, 
and sewed up the treasure in his straw mattress 
or hidden it behind the bricks of the chimney- 
piece. Under such circumstances the payment 
of debts and taxes was out of the question ; and 
as the same state of things made creditors clam- 
orous and ugly, the courts were crowded with 
lawsuits. The lawyers usually contrived to get 
their money by exacting retainers in advance, 
and the practice of champerty was common, 
whereby the lawyer did his work in considera- 
tion of a percentage on the sum which was at 
last forcibly collected. Homesteads were sold 
for the payment of foreclosed mortgages, cattle 
were seized in distrainer, and the farmer him- 
self was sent to jail. The smouldering fires of 
wrath thus kindled found expression in curses 
21 1 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

aimed at lawyers, judges, and merchants. The 
wicked merchants bought foreign goods and 
drained the state of specie to pay for them, while 
they drank Madeira wine and dressed their wives 
in fine velvets and laces. So said the farmers ; and 
city ladies, far kinder than these railers deemed 
them, formed clubs, of which the members 
pledged themselves to wear homespun — a poor 
palliative for the deep-seated ills of the time. In 
such mood were many of the villagers when in the 
summer of 1786 they were overtaken by the craze 
for paper money. At the meeting of the legisla- 
ture in May, a petition came in from Bristol 
County, praying for an issue of paper. The peti- 
tioners admitted that such money was sure to de- 
teriorate in value, and they doubted the wisdom 
of trying to keep it up by forcing acts. Instead of 
this they w^ould have the rate of its deteriora- 
tion regulated by law, so that a dollar might be 
worth ninety cents to-day, and presently seventy 
cents, and by and by fifty cents, and so on till 
it should go down to zero and be thrown over- 
board. People would thus know what to expect, 
and it would be all right. The delicious naivete 
of this argument did not prevail with the legis- 
lature of Massachusetts, and soft money was 
frowned down by a vote of ninety-nine to nine- 
teen. Then a bill was brought in seeking to 
reestablish in legislation the ancient practice of 
barter, and make horses and cows legal tender 
212 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

for debts ; and this bill was crushed by eighty- 
nine votes agains'», rhirty-five. At the same 
time this legislature passed a bill to strengthen 
the federal government by a grant of supple- 
mentary funds to Congress, and thus laid a 
further burden of taxes upon the people. 

There was an outburst of popular wrath. A 
convention at Hatfield in August decided that 
the court of common pleas ought to be abolished, 
that no funds should be granted to Congress, 
and that paper money should be issued at once. 
Another convention at Lenox denounced such 
incendiary measures, approved of supporting 
the federal government, and declared that no 
good could come from the issue of paper money. 
But meanwhile the angry farmers had resorted 
to violence. The legislature, they said, had its 
sittings in Boston, under the influence of wicked 
lawvers and merchants, and thus could not be 
expected to do the will of the people. A cry 
went up that henceforth the law-makers must 
sit in some small inland town, where jealous 
eyes might watch their proceedings. Mean- 
while the lawyers must be dealt with ; and at 
Northampton, Worcester, Great Barrington, 
and Concord the courts were broken up by 
armed mobs. At Concord one Job Shattuck 
brouorht several hundred armed men into the 
town and surrounded the court-house, while in 
a fierce harangue he declared that the time had 
213 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

come for wiping out all debts. " Yes/' squeaked 
a nasal voice from the crowd, — " yes, Job, we 
know all about them two farms you can't never 
pay for ! " But this repartee did not save the 
judges, who thought it best to flee from the 
town. At first the legislature deemed it wise to 
take a lenient view of these proceedings, and it 
even went so far as to promise to hold its next 
session out of Boston. But the agitation had 
reached a point where it could not be stayed. 
In September the supreme court was to sit at 
Springfield, and Governor Bowdoin sent a force 
of 600 militia under General Shepard to protect 
it. They were confronted by some 600 insur- 
gents, under the leadership of Daniel Shays. 
This man had been a captain in the Continental 
army, and in his force were many of the penni- 
less veterans whom Gates would fain have in- 
cited to rebellion at Newburgh. Shays seems 
to have done what he could to restrain his men 
from violence, but he was a poor creature, want- 
ing alike in courage and good faith. On the 
other hand, the militia were lacking in spirit. 
After a disorderly parley, with much cursing 
and swearing, they beat a retreat, and the court 
was prevented from sitting. Fresh riots followed 
^t Worcester and Concord. A regiment of 
cavalry, sent out by the governor, scoured 
Middlesex County, and, after a short fight in 
the woods near Groton, captured Job Shattuck 
214 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

and dispersed his men. But this only exaspera- 
ted the insurgents. They assembled in Worces- 
ter to the number of 1200 or more, where they 
lived for two months at free quarters, while 
Shays organized and drilled them. 

Meanwhile the habeas corpus act was sus- 
pended for eight months, and Governor Bow- 
doin called out an army of 4400 men, who were 
placed under command of General Lincoln. 
As the state treasury was nearly empty, some 
wealthy gentlemen in Boston subscribed the 
money needed for equipping these troops, and 
about the middle of January, 1787, they were 
collected at Worcester. The rebels had be- 
haved shamefully, burning barns and seizing 
all the plunder they could lay hands on. As 
their numbers increased they found their mili- 
tary stores inadequate, and accordingly they 
marched upon Springfield, with the intent to 
capture the federal arsenal there, and provide 
themselves with muskets and cannon. General 
Shepard held Springfield with 1200 men, and 
on the 25th of January Shays attacked him 
with a force of somewhat more than 2000, hop- 
ing to crush him and seize the arsenal before 
Lincoln could come to the rescue. But his 
plan of attack was faulty, and as soon as his 
men began falling under Shepard's fire a panic 
seized them, and they retreated in disorder to 
Ludlow, and then to Amherst, setting fire to 
215 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

houses and robbing the inhabitants. On the 
approach of Lincoln's army, three days later, 
Theinsur- Shays rctrcatcd to Pelham, and placed 

preJsedb7" ^^^ forCCS On tWO StCCp hills pro- 
state troops tected at the bottom by huge snow- 
drifts. Lincoln advanced to Hadley and sought 
to open negotiations with the rebels. They 
were reminded that a contest with the state 
government was hopeless, and that they had 
already incurred the penalty of death ; but if 
they would now lay down their arms and go 
home, a free pardon could be obtained for them. 
Shays seemed willing to yield, and Saturday, 
the 3d of February, was appointed for a con- 
ference between some of the leading rebels and 
some of the officers. But this was only a strata- 
gem. During the conference Shays decamped 
and marched his men through Prescott and 
North Dana to Petersham. Toward nightfall the 
trick was discovered, and Lincoln set his whole 
force in motion over the mountain ridges of 
Shutesbury and New Salem. The day had 
been mild, but during the night the thermo- 
meter dropped below zero and an icy, cutting 
snow began to fall. There was great suffering 
during the last ten miles, and indeed the whole 
march of thirty miles in thirteen hours over 
steep and snow-covered roads was a worthy 
exploit for these veterans of the Revolution. 
Shays and his men had not looked for such a 
216 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

display of energy, and as they were getting 
their breakfast on Sunday morning at Peters- 
ham they were taken by surprise. A few 
minutes sufficed to scatter them in flight. A 
hundred and fifty, including Shays himself, were 
taken prisoners. The rest fled in all directions, 
most of them to Athol and Northfield, whence 
they made their way into Vermont. General 
Lincoln then marched his troops into the 
mountains of Berkshire, where disturbances 
still continued. On the 26th of February one 
Captain Hamlin, with several hundred insur- 
gents, plundered the town of Stockbridge and 
carried oflf the leading citizens as hostages. He 
was pursued as far as Sheffield, defeated there 
in a sharp skirmish, with a loss of some thirty 
in killed and wounded, and his troops scattered. 
This put an end to the insurrection in Massa- 
chusetts. 

During the autumn similar disturbances had 
occurred in the states to the northward. At 
Exeter in New Hampshire and at Windsor 
and Rutland in Vermont the courts had been 
broken up by armed mobs, and at Rutland 
there had been bloodshed. When the Shays 
rebellion was put down. Governor ^^^^^^^^^ 
Bowdoin requested the neighbouring neighbouring 
states to lend their aid in bringing the 
insurgents to justice, and all complied with the 
request except Vermont and Rhode Island* 
217 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

The legislature of Rhode Island sympathized 
with the rebels, and refused to allow the gov- 
ernor to issue a warrant for their arrest. On 
the other hand, the governor of Vermont issued 
a proclamation out of courtesy toward Massa- 
chusetts, but he caused it to be understood that 
this was but an empty form, as the state of 
Vermont could not afford to discourage immi- 
gration ! A feeling of compassion for the in- 
surgents was widely spread in Massachusetts. 
In March the leaders were tried, and fourteen 
were convicted of treason and sentenced to 
death; but Governor Bowdoin, whose term was 
about to expire, granted a reprieve for a few 
weeks. At the annual election in April the 
candidates for the governorship were Bowdoin 
and Hancock, and it was generally believed 
that the latter would be more likely than the 
former to pardon the convicted men. So strong 
was this feeling that, although much gratitude 
was felt toward Bowdoin, to whose energetic 
measures the prompt suppression of the rebel- 
lion was due, Hancock obtained a large ma- 
jority. When the question of a pardon came 
up for discussion, Samuel Adams, who was then 
president of the senate, was strongly opposed 
to it, and one of his arguments was very char- 
acteristic. " In monarchies," he said, " the 
crime of treason and rebellion may admit of 
being pardoned or lightly punished; but the 
218' 



DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

man who dares to rebel against the laws of a 
republic ought to suffer death.'* This was 
Adams's sensitive point. He wanted the whole 
world to realize that the rule of a republic is a 
rule of law and order, and that liberty does not 
mean license. But in spite of this view, for 
which there was much to be said, the clemency 
of the American temperament prevailed, and 
Governor Hancock pardoned all the prisoners. 
Nothing in the history of these disturbances 
is more instructive than the light incidentally 
thrown upon the relations between Congress 
and the state government. Just before the news 
of the rout at Petersham, Samuel Adams had 
proposed in the senate that the governor should 
be requested to write to Congress and inform 
that body of what was going on in Massachu- 
setts, stating that " although the legislature are 
firmly persuaded that ... in all probability 
they will be able speedily and effectively to 
suppress the rebellion, yet, if any unforeseen 
event should take place which mav frustrate 
the measures of government, they rely upon 
such support from the United States as is ex- 
pressly and solemnly stipulated by the articles 
of confederation." A resolution to this effect 
was carried in the senate, but defeated in the 
house through the influence of western coun- 
try members in sympathy with the insurgents; 
and incredible as it may seem, the argument 
219 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

was freely used that it was incompatible with 
the dignity of Massachusetts to allow United 
States troops to set foot upon her soil. When 
we reflect that the arsenal at Springfield, where 
the most considerable disturbance occurred, was 
itself federal property, the climax of absurdity 
might seem to have been reached. 

It was left for Congress itself, however, to cap 
that climax. The progress of the insurrection 
in the autumn in Vermont, New Hampshire, 
and Massachusetts, as well as the troubles in 
Rhode Island, had alarmed the whole country. 
It was feared that the insurgents in these states 
might join forces, and in some way kindle a 
Congress Aamc that would run through the 
afraid to land. Accordingly Congress in Octo- 

interfere - n i i r 

her called upon the states tor a con- 
tinental force, but did not dare to declare openly 
what it was to be used for. It was thought 
necessary to say that the troops were wanted 
for an expedition against the northwestern In- 
dians ! National humiliation could go no further 
than such a confession, on the part of our cen- 
tral government, that it dared not use force in 
defence of those very articles of confederation 
to which it owed its existence. Things had 
come to such a pass that people of all shades 
of opinion were beginning to agree upon one 
thing,' — that something must be done, and 
done quickly. 

220 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVER- 
EIGNTY 

WHILE the events we have heretofore 
contemplated seemed to prophesy 
the speedy dissolution and downfall 
of the half-formed American Union, a series of 
causes, obscure enough at first, but emerging 
gradually into distinctness and then into pro- 
minence, were preparing the way for the foun- 
dation of a national sovereignty. The growth 
of this sovereignty proceeded stealthily along 
such ancient lines of precedent as to creation of 
take ready hold of people's minds, a national 

1 r • r 1 J 1 domain 

although few, if any, understood the beyond the 
full purport of what they were doing, ^^^^s^^""'^' 
Ever since the days when our English fore- 
fathers dwelt in village communities in the for- 
ests of northern Germany, the idea of a com- 
mon land or folkland — a territory belonging 
to the whole community, and upon which new 
communities might be organized by a process 
analogous to what physiologists call cell-multi- 
plication — had been perfectly familiar to every- 
body. Townships budded from village or par- 

221 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

ish folkland in Maryland and Massachusetts 
in the seventeenth century, just as they had 
done in England before the time of Alfred. 
The critical period of the Revolution witnessed 
the repetition of this process on a gigantic scale. 
It witnessed the creation of a national territory 
beyond the Alleghanies, — an enormous folk- 
land in which all the thirteen old states had a 
common interest, and upon which new and 
derivative communities were already beginning 
to organize themselves. Questions about pub- 
lic lands are often regarded as the driest of 
historical deadwood. Discussions about them 
in newspapers and magazines belong to the 
class of articles which the general reader usually 
skips. Yet there is a great deal of the philo- 
sophy of history wrapped up in this subject, and 
it now comes to confront us at a most interest- 
ing moment; for without studying this creation 
of a national domain between the Alleghanies 
and the Mississippi, we cannot understand how 
our Federal Union came to be formed. 

When England began to contend with France 
and Spain for the possession of North America, 
she made royal grants of land upon this con- 
tinent, in royal ignorance of its extent and 
configuration. But until the Seven Years' War 
the eastward and westward partitioning of these 
grants was of little practical consequence ; for 
English dominion was bounded by the AUe- 
222 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

ghanles, and everything beyond was in the 
hands of the French. In that most momentous 
war the genius of the elder Pitt won the region 
east of the Mississippi for men of EngHsh race, 
while the vast territory of Louisiana, beyond, 
passed under the control of Spain. During the 
Revolutionary War, m a series of romantic ex- 
peditions, the state of Virginia took military 
possession of a great part of the wilderness east 
of the Mississippi, founding towns in the Ohio 
and Cumberland valleys, and occupying with 
garrisons of her state militia the posts at Caho- 
kia, Kaskaskia, and Vincennes. We have seen 
how, through the skill of our commissioners at 
Paris, this noble country was secured for the 
Americans in the treaty of 1783, in Conflicting 
spite of the reluctance of France and ti'e"^'esTem 
the hostility of Spain. Throughout territory 
the Revolutionary War the Americans claimed 
this territory as part of the United States ; but 
when once it passed from under the control of 
Great Britain, into whose hands did it go ? To 
whom did it belong ? To this question there 
were various and conflicting answers. North 
Carolina, indeed, had already taken possession 
of what was afterward called Tennessee, and at 
the beginning of the war Virginia had annexed 
Kentucky. As to these points there could be 
little or no dispute. But with the territory 
north of the Ohio River it was very different. 
223 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

Four states laid claim either to the whole or to 
parts of this territory, and these claims were 
not simply conflicting, but irreconcilable. 

The charters of Massachusetts and Connecti- 
cut were framed at a time when people had not 
got over the notion that this part of the conti- 
nent was scarcely wider than Mexico, and ac- 
cordingly those colonies had received the roval 
Claims of pcrmission to extend from sea to sea. 
s^randcon- ^hc cxistcncc of a foreign colony of 
necticut Dutchmen in the neighbourhood was 

a trifle about which these documents did not 
trouble themselves; but when Charles II. con- 
quered this colony and bestowed it upon his 
brother, the province of New York became a 
stubborn fact, which could not be disregarded. 
Massachusetts and Connecticut peaceably set- 
tled their boundary line with New York, and 
laid no claims to land within the limits of that 
state ; but they still continued to claim what lay 
beyond it, as far as the Mississippi River, where 
the Spanish dominion now began. The regions 
claimed by Massachusetts have since become 
the southern halves of the states of Michigan 
and Wisconsin. The region claimed by Con- 
necticut was a narrow strip running over the 
northern portions of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indi- 
ana, and Illinois ; and we have seen how much 
trouble was occasioned in Pennsylvania by this 
circumstance. 

224 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

But New York laughed to scorn those claims 
of Connecticut. In the seventeenth century al? 
the Algonquin tribes between Lake claims of 
Erie and the Cumberland Mountains New York 
had become tributary to the Iroquois ; and 
during the hundred years' struggle between 
France and England for the supremacy of this 
continent the Iroquois had put themselves 
under the protection of England, which thence- 
forth always treated them as an appurtenance to 
New York. For a hundred years before the 
Revolution, said New York, she had borne all 
expense of protecting the Iroquois against the 
French, and by various treaties she had become 
lawful suzerain over the Six Nations and their 
lands and the lands of their Algonquin vassals. 
On such grounds New York claimed pretty 
much everything north of the Ohio and east 
of the Miami. 

But, according to Virginia, it made little dif- 
ference what Massachusetts and Connecticut 
and New York thought about the matter, for 
every acre of land, from the Ohio Virginia's 
River up to Lake Superior, belonged ^^^™^ 
to her. Was not she the lordly " Old Domin- 
ion," out of which every one of the states had 
been carved? Even Cape Cod and Cape Ann 
were said to be in " North Virginia " until, in 
1 6 14, Captain John Smith invented the name 
" New England." It was a fair presumption 
225 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

that any uncarved territory belonged to Vir- 
ginia ; and it was further held that the original 
charter of 1609 used language which implicitly 
covered the northwestern territory, though, as 
Thomas Paine showed, in a pamphlet entitled 
" Public Good," this was very doubtful. But 
besides all this, it was Virginia that had actually 
conquered the disputed territory, and held every 
military post in it except those which the Brit- 
ish had not yet surrendered ; and who could 
doubt that possession was nine points in the 
law ? 

Of these conflicting claims, those of New 
York and Virginia were the most grasping and 
the most formidable, because they concerned a 
region into which immigration was beginning 
rapidly to pour. They were regarded with 
strong disfavour by the small states — Rhode 
Island, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland- — 
which were so situated that they never could 
expand in any direction. They looked forward 
with dread to a future in which New 

Maryland's . . 

novel and lork and Virginia might wax pow- 
suggesdon, ^^^^^ cnough to tyrannize over their 
Oct. 15, smaller neighbours. But of these pro- 
testing states it was only Maryland 
that fairly rose to the occasion, and suggested 
an idea which seemed startling at first, but from 
which mighty and unforeseen consequences were 



226 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

soon to follow.^ It was on the i 5th of October, 
1777, just two days before Burgoyne's surren- 
der, that this path-breaking idea first found 
expression in Congress. The articles of confed- 
eration were then just about to be presented to 
the several states to be ratified, and the ques- 
tion arose as to how the conflicting western 
claims should be settled. A motion was then 
made that " the United States in Congress as- 
sembled shall have the sole and exclusive right 
and power to ascertain and fix the western 
boundary of such states as claim to the Missis- 
sippi, . . . and lay out the land beyond the 
boundary so ascertained into separate and inde- 
pendent states, from time to time, as the num- 
bers and circumstances of the people may re- 
quire." To carry out such a motion, it would 
be necessary for the four claimant states to sur- 
render their claims into the hands of the United 
States, and thus create a domain which should be 
owned by the confederacy in common. So bold 
a step towartls centralization found no favour at 
the time. No state but Maryland voted for it. 

1 This subject has been treated in a masterly manner bv 
Mr. H. B. Adams, in an essay on ** Maryland's Influence 
upon Land Cessions to the United States," published in the 
Third Series of the admirable Johns Hopk'ms U?iiz'ersity 
Studies in History and Politics. I am indebted to Mr. 
Adams for many valuable suggestions. 



227 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

But Maryland's course was well considered: 
she pursued it resolutely, and was rewarded 
with complete success. By February, 1779, all 
the other states had ratified the articles of con- 
federation. In the following May, Maryland 
declared that she would not ratify the articles 
until she should receive some definite assurance 
that the northwestern territory should become 
the common property of the United States, 
— " subject to be parcelled out by Congress 
into free, convenient, and independent govern- 
ments." The question, thus boldly brought 
into the foreground, was earnestly discussed in 
Congress and in the state legislatures, until in 
February, 1780, partly through the influence 
The several of General Schuyler, New York de- 
states yield cidcd to ccde all her claims to the 

their claims 

in favour of wcstcm lauds. This act of New York 
States"'^ set things in motion, so that in Sep- 
1780-85 tember Congress recommended to all 
states having western claims to cede them to 
the United States. In October, Congress, still 
pursuing the Maryland idea, went farther, and 
declared that all such lands as might be ceded 
should be sold in lots to immigrants and the 
money used for federal purposes, and that in 
due season distinct states should be formed 
there, to be admitted into the Union, with the 
same rights of sovereignty as the original thir- 
teen states. As an inducement to Virginia, it 
228 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

was further provided that any state which had 
incurred expense during the war in defending 
its western possessions should receive compen- 
sation. To this general invitation Connecticut 
immediately responded by offering to cede 
everything to which she laid claim, except 
3,250,000 acres on the southern shore of Lake 
Erie, which she wished to reserve for educa- 
tional purposes. Washington disapproved of 
this reservation, but it was accepted by Con- 
gress, though the business was not completed 
until 1786. This part of the state of Ohio is 
still commonly spoken of as the " Connecticut 
Reserve," or " Western Reserve." Half a 
million acres, known as " Fire Lands," were 
given to citizens of Connecticut whose property 
had been destroyed in the British raids that set 
fire to her coast towns, and the rest were after- 
ward sold for $1,200,000, in aid of schools and 
colleges. 

In January, 178 1, Virginia offered to sur- 
render all the territory northwest of the Ohio, 
provided that Congress would guarantee her in 
the possession of Kentucky. This gave rise to 
a discussion which 'lasted nearly three years, 
until Virginia withdrew her proviso and made 
the cession absolute. It was accepted by Con- 
gress on the 1st of March, 1784, and on the 
19th of April, in the following year, — the 
tenth anniversary of Lexington, — Massachu* 
229 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

setts surrendered her claims ; and the whole 
northwestern territory — the area of the great 
states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indi- 
ana, and Ohio (excepting the Connecticut Re- 
serve) ^ — thus became the common property 
of the half-formed nation. Maryland, however, 
did not wait for this. As soon as New York 
and Virginia had become thoroughly committed 
to the movement, she ratified the articles of 
confederation, which thus went into operation 
on the 1st of March, 1781. 

This acquisition of a common territory speed- 
ily led to results not at all contemplated in the 
theory of union upon which the articles of con- 
federation were based. It led to " the exercise 
of national sovereignty in the sense of eminent 
domain," as shown in the ordinances of 1784 
and 1787, and prepared men's minds for the 
work of the Federal Convention. Great credit 
is due to Maryland for her resolute course in 
setting in motion this train of events. It aroused 
fierce indignation at the time, as to many peo- 
ple it looked unfriendly to the Union. Some 
hot-heads were even heard to say that if Mary- 
land should persist any longer in her refusal to 
join the confederation, she ought to be sum- 
marily divided up between the neighbouring 
states, and her name erased from the map. But 
the brave little state had earned a better fate 

^ This was surrendered to the United States in 1800. 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

than that of Poland. When we have come to 
trace out the results of her action, we shall see 
that just as it was Massachusetts that took the 
decisive step in bringing on the Revolutionary 
War when she threw the tea into Boston har- 
bour, so it was Maryland that, by leading the 
way toward the creation of a national domain, 
laid the corner-stone of our Federal Union. 
Equal credit must be given to Virginia for her 
magnanimity in making the desired surrender. 
It was New York, indeed, that set the praise- 
worthy example ; but New York, after all, sur- 
rendered only a shadowy claim, whereas Virginia 
gave up a magnificent and princely territory 
of which she was actually in possession. She 
might have held back and made end- ^agna- 
less trouble, just as, at the beginning nimity of 
of the Revolution, she might have 
refused to make common cause with Massa- 
chusetts; but in both instances her leading 
statesmen showed a far-sighted wisdom and a 
breadth of patriotism for which no words of 
praise can be too strong. In the later instance, 
as in the earlier, Thomas Jefferson played an 
important part. He who in after years, as 
president of the United States, was destined, by 
the purchase of Louisiana and the exploration 
of Oregon, to carry our western frontier beyond 
the Rocky Mountains, had, in 1779, done 
more than any one else to support the roman- 
231 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

tic campaign in which General Clark had taken 
possession of the country between the Alle- 
ghanies and the ^Mississippi. He had much to 
do with the generous policy which gave up the 
greater part of that country for a national do- 
main, and on the very day on which the act of 
cession was completed he presented to Congress 
a remarkable plan for the government of the 
new territory, which was onlv partially success- 
ful because it attempted too much, but the 
results of w^hich were in many ways notable. 

In this plan, known as the Ordinance of 
1784, Jefferson proposed to divide the north- 
western territory into ten states, or just twice 
as manv as have actually grown out of it. In 
each of these states the settlers might establish 
a local governm.ent, under the authority of 
y,-_,_ Cong^ress ; and when in any one of 

them the population should come to 
g.^-rrren: cqual that of thc Icast populous of 
Slowest- ^^^ original states, it might be ad- 
em teni- mitted into the Union bv the consent 
''''''■ of nine states in Cong^ress. The new 
states were to have universal suffrage; they must 
have republican forms of government ; they 
must pay their shares of the federal debt ; they 
must forever remain a part of the United States ; 
and after the vear 1800 negro slaverv^ must be 
prohibited within their limits. The names of 
these ten states have afforded much amusement 
232 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

to Jetferson's biographers. In those davs the 
schoohnaster was abroad in the land after a pe- 
culiar fashion. Just as we are now in the full 
tide of that Gothic revival which goes back for 
its beginnings to Sir Walter Scott ; as we ad- 
mire mediaeval things, and try to build our 
houses after old English models, and prefer 
words of what people call " Saxon " ori^n, and 
name our children Roland and Herbert, or 
Edith and Winitred, so our s^reat-^randfathers 
lived in a time of classical revival. Thev were 
always looking for precedents in Greek and 
Roman history ; thev were just besinnino: to 
tr\" to make their wooden houses look like 
temples, with Doric columns ; thev preferred 
words of Latin origin ; thev sis^ned their pam- 
phlets "' Brutus " and '' Lycuro;us," and in sober 
earnest baptized their children as C.Tsar, or 
Marcellus, or Darius. The map of the United 
States was just about to bloom forth with towns 
named Ithaca and Svracuse, Corinth and Sparta; 
and on the Ohio River, opposite the mouth of 
Licking Creek, a city had lately been founded, 
the name of which was truly portentous. " Lo- 
santiville " was this wonderful compound, in 
which the initial L stood for " Lickin«J," while 
OS signified " mouth," j;;/; " opposite,'' and z-i/Ie 
" town ; " and the whole read neatlv backwards 
as '"' Town-opposite-mouth-of-Lickinor." In 
1790 General St. Clair, then governor of thi 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

northwest territory, changed this name to Cin« 
cinnati, in honour of the military order to which 
he belonged. With such examples in mind, we 
may see that the names of the proposed ten 
states, from which the failure of Jefferson's 
ordinance has delivered us, illustrated the pre- 
valent taste of the time rather than any idio- 
syncrasy of the man. The proposed names 
were Sylvania, Michigania, Chersonesus, As- 
senisipia, Metropotamia, Illinoia, Saratoga, 
Washington, Polypotamia, and Pelisipia. 

It was not the nomenclature that stood in 
the way of Jefferson's scheme, but the whole- 
sale way in which he tried to deal with the 
slavery question. He wished to hem in the 
probable extension of slavery by an impassable 
barrier, and accordingly he not only provided 
He wishes ^hat it should be extinguished in the 
to prohibit northwcstcm territory after the year 

slavery in . , . . 

the national 1 8oo, but at the samc time his anti- 
domain skvcry ardour led him to try to ex- 

tend the national dominion southward. He did 
his best to persuade the legislature of Virginia 
to crown its work by giving up Kentucky to 
the United States, and he urged that North 
Carolina and Georgia should also cede their 
western territories. As for South Carolina, she 
was shut in between the two neighbouring 
states in such wise that her western claims were 
\7ague and barren. Jefferson would thus have 
234 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

drawn a north-and-south line from Lake Erie 
down to the Spanish border of the Floridas, 
and west of this line he would have had all 
negro slavery end with the eighteenth century. 
The policy of restricting slavery, so as to let it 
die a natural death within a narrowly confined 
area, — the policy to sustain which Lincoln was 
elected president in i860, — was thus first defi- 
nitely outlined by Jefferson in 1784. It was 
the policy of forbidding slavery in the national 
territory. Had this policy succeeded then, it 
would have been an ounce of prevention worth 
many a pound of cure. But it failed because 
of its largeness, because it had too many ele- 
ments to deal with. For the moment, the pro- 
posal to exclude slavery from the northwestern 
territory was defeated. It got only six states in 
its favour, where it needed seven. ^ This defeat, 
however, was retrieved three years later, when 
the famous Ordinance of 1787 prohibited slav- 
ery forever from the national territory north of 
the Ohio River. But Jefferson's scheme had 
not only to deal with the national domain as it 

^ *' Ten states were present. The 4 Eastern states, N. 
York, and Penns., were for the clause. Jersey would have 
been for it, but there were but two members, one of whom 
was sick in his chambers. South Carolina, Maryland, and 
! Virginia ! voted against it. N. Carolina was divided, as 
would have been Virginia, had not one of its delegates been 
sick in bed." Jefferson to Madison, April 25, 1784. 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

was, but also to extend that domain southward 
to Florida; and in this it failed. Virginia could 
not be persuaded to give up Kentucky until 
too late. When Kentucky came into the 
Union, after the adoption of the Federal Con- 
stitution, she came as a sovereign state, with all 
her domestic institutions in her own hands. 
With the western districts of North Carolina 
the case was somewhat different, and the story 
of this region throws a curious light upon the 
affairs of that disorderly time. 

In surrendering her western territory, North 
Carolina showed praiseworthy generosity. But 
the frontier settlers were too numerous to be 
handed about from one dominion to another, 
without saying something about it themselves ; 
and their action complicated the matter, until it 
was too late for Jefferson's scheme to operate 
upon them. In June, 1784, North Carolina 
ceded the region since known as Tennessee, and 
allowed Congress two years in which to accept 
the grant. Meanwhile, her own authority was 
to remain supreme there. But the settlers 
grumbled and protested. Some of them were 
sturdy pioneers of the finest type, but along 
with these there was a lawless population of 
"white trash," ancestors of the peculiar race of 
men we find to-day in rural districts of Mis- 
souri and Arkansas. They were the refuse of 
North Carolina, gradually pushed westward b]; 
^36 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

the advance of an orderly civilization. Crime 
was rife in the settlements, and, in the absence 
of courts, a rough-and-ready justice was admin- 
istered by vigilance committees. The Chero- 
kees, moreover, were troublesome neighbours, 
and people lived in dread of their tomahawks. 
Petitions had again and again gone up to the 
legislature, urging the establishment of courts 
and a militia, but had passed unheeded, and 
now it seemed that the state had withdrawn her 
protection entirely. The settlers did not wish 
to have their country made a national domain. 
If their own state could not protect them, it was 
quite clear to them that Congress could not. 
What was Congress, anyway, but a roomful of 
men whom nobody heeded ? So these back- 
woodsmen held a convention in a log-cabin at 
Jonesborough, and seceded from North Caro- 
lina. They declared that the counties between 
the Bald Mountains and the Clinch River con- 
stituted an independent state, to which they 
gave the name of Franklin ; ^ and they went on 
to frame a constitution and elect a John Sevier, 
legislature with two* chambers. For ^Jp'^^^Viin,' 
governor they chose John Sevier, one 1784-88 
of the heroes of King's Mountain, a man of 

^ The name was given in honour of Benjanr>in Franklin. 
An attempt was made to modify it to Frankland (i. e." land 
of the free "), but this was voted down. It is often referred 
to, however, as the state of Frankland. 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

Huguenot ancestry, and such dauntless nature 
that he has been sometimes called the " lion 
of the border." Having done all this, the sece- 
ders, in spite of their small respect for Con- 
gress, sent a delegate to that body, requesting 
that the new state of Franklin might be ad- 
mitted into the Union. Before this business had 
been completed. North Carolina repealed her 
act of cession, and warned the backwoodsmen 
to return to their allegiance. This at once split 
the new state into two factions : one party 
wished to keep on as they had now started, the 
other wished for reunion with North Carolina. 
In 178.6 the one party in each county elected 
members to represent them in the North Caro- 
lina legislature, while the other party elected 
members of the legislature of Franklin. Every- 
where two sets of officers claimed authority, 
civil dudgeon grew very high, and pistols were 
freely used. The agitation extended into the 
neighbouring counties of Virginia, where some 
discontented people wished to secede and join 
the state of Franklin. For the next two years 
there was something like civil war, until the 
North Carolina party grew so strong that Sevier 
fled, and the State of Franklin ceased to exist. 
Sevier was arrested on a warrant for high trea- 
son, but he effected an escape, and after men's 
passions had cooled down his great services and 
strong character brought him again to the front, 

238 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

He sat in the senate of North Carohna, and in 
1796, when Tennessee became a state in the 
Union, Sevier was her first governor. 

These troubles show how impracticable was 
the attempt to create a national domain in any 
part of the country which contained a consider- 
able population. The instinct of self-govern- 
ment was too strong to allow it. Anv such 
population would have refused to submit to 
ordinances of Congress. To obey the parent 
state or to set up for one's self, — these were 
the only alternatives which ordinary men at that 
time could understand. Experience had not yet 
ripened their minds for comprehending a tem- 
porary condition of semi-independence, such as 
exists to-day under our territorial governments. 
The behaviour of these Tennessee backwoods- 
men was just what might have been expected. 
The land on which thev were livinor was not com- 
mon land : it had been appropriated ; it be- 
longed to them, and it was for them to make 
laws for it. Such is the lesson of the short-lived 
state of Franklin. It was because she perceived 
that similar feelings were at work in Kentucky 
that Virginia did not venture to loosen her grasp 
upon that state until it was fully organized and 
ready for admission into the Union. It was in 
no such partly settled country that Congress 
could do such a thing as carve out boundaries 
and prohibit slavery by an act of national 
239 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

sovereignty. There remained the magnificent 
territory north of the Ohio, — an empire in it- 
self, as large as the German Empire with the 
Netherlands thrown in, — in which the collec- 
tive wisdom of the American people, as repre- 
sented in Congress, might autocratically shape 
the future ; for it was still a wilderness, watched 
by frontier garrisons, and save for the Indians 
and the trappers and a few sleepy old French 
towns on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, 
there were no signs of human life in all its vast 
solitude. Here, where there was nobody to 
grumble or secede. Congress, in 1787, proceeded 
to carry out the work which Jefferson had out- 
lined three years before. 

It is interesting to trace the immediate origin 
of the famous Ordinance of 1787. At the close 
of the war General Rufus Putnam, from the 
mountain village of Rutland in Massachusetts, 
sent to Congress an outline of a plan for colo- 
nizing the region between Lake Erie and the 
Ohio with veterans of the army, who were well 
fitted to protect the border against Indian at- 
tacks. The land was to be laid out in townships 

. ^ six miles square, " with large reserva- 

Onginof . 2 • • J U 1 » 

the Ohio tions tor the mmistry and schools ; 
company ^^j ^^ Selling it to the soldiers at a 
merely nominal price, the penniless Congress 
might obtain an income, and at the same time 
recognize their services in the only substantial 
240 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

manner that seemed practicable. Washington 
strongly favoured the scheme, but, in order to 
carry it out, it was necessary to wait until the 
cession of the territory by the various claimant 
states should be completed. After this had been 
done, a series of treaties were made with the 
Six Nations, as overlords, and their vassal tribes, 
the Wyandots, Chippewas, Ottawas, Delawares, 
and Shawnees, whereby all Indian claims to the 
lands in question were forever renounced. The 
matter was then formally taken up by Holden 
Parsons of Connecticut, and by Rufus Put- 
nam, Manasseh Cutler, Winthrop Sargent, and 
others, of Massachusetts, and a joint-stock com- 
pany was formed for the purchase of lands on 
the Ohio River. A large number of settlers — 
old soldiers of excellent character, whom the 
war had impoverished — were ready to go and 
take possession at once ; and in its petition the 
Ohio company asked for nothing better than 
that its settlers should be " under the immedi- 
ate government of Congress in such mode and 
for such time as Congress shall judge proper." 
Such a proposal, affording a means at once of 
replenishing the treasury and satisfying the sol- 
diers, could not but be accepted ; and thus were 
laid the foundations of a state destined within a 
century to equal in population and far surpass 
in wealth the whole Union as it was at that 
time. It became necessary at once to lay down 
241 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

certain general principles of government appli= 
cable to the northwestern territory ; and the 
result was the Ordinance of 1787, which was 
chiefly the work of Edward Carrington and 
Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, and Nathan 
Dane of Massachusetts, in committee, following 
the outlines of a draft which is supposed to have 
been made by Manasseh Cutler. Jefferson was 
no longer on the ground, having gone on his 
mission to Paris, but some of the principles of 
his proposed Ordinance of 1784 were adopted. 
It was provided that the northwestern terri- 
tory should ultimately be carved into states, 
not exceeding live in number, and any one of 
these might be admitted into the Union as soon 
as its population should reach 60,000. In the 
The Ordi- i^ean time, the whole territory was 
nance of to bc govcmed by officers appointed 
''^ ^ by Congress, and required to take an 

oath of allegiance to the United States. Under 
this government there was to be unqualified 
freedom of religious worship, and no religious 
tests should be required of any public official. 
Intestate property should descend in equal 
shares to children of both sexes. Public schools 
were to be established. Suffrage was not yet 
made universal, as a freehold in fifty acres was 
required. No law was ever to be made which 
should impair the obligation of contracts, and 
it was thoroughly agreed that this provision 
242 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

especially covered and prohibited the issue of 
paper money. The future states to be formed 
from this territory must make their laws con- 
form to these fundamental principles, and under 
no circumstances could any one of them ever 
be separated from the Union. In such wise, 
the theory of peaceful secession was condemned 
in advance, so far as it was possible for the 
federal government to do so. Jefferson's prin- 
ciple, that slavery should not be permitted in 
the national domain, was also adopted so far as 
the northwest was concerned ; and it is interest- 
ing to observe the names of the states which 
were present in Congress when this clause was 
added to the ordinance. They were Georgia, 
the two Carolinas, Virginia, Delaware, New 
Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts, — and 
the vote was unanimous. No one was more 
active in bringing about this result than W^illiam 
Grayson of Virginia, who was earnestly sup- 
ported by Lee. The action of Virginia and 
North Carolina at that time' need not surprise 
us. But the movements in favour of emancipa- 
tion in these two states, and the emancipation 
actually effected or going on at the north, had 
already made Georgia and South Carolina ex- 
tremely sensitive about slavery ; and their action 
on this occasion can be explained only by sup- 
posing that they were willing to yield a point 
in this remote territory, in order by and by to be 

243 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

able to insist upon an equivalent in the case of 
the territory lying west of Georgia. Nor would 
they have yielded at all had not a fugitive slave 
law been enacted, providing that slaves escap- 
ing beyond the Ohio should be arrested and 
returned to their owners. These arrangements 
having been made, General St. Clair was ap- 
pointed governor of the territory ; surveys were 
made ; land was put up for sale at sixty cents 
per acre, payable in certificates of the public 
debt; and settlers rapidly came in. The west- 
ward exodus from New England and Penn- 
sylvania now began, and only fourteen years 
elapsed before Ohio, the first of the five states, 
was admitted into the Union. 

"I doubt," says Daniel Webster, "whether 
one single law of any law-giver, ancient or 
modern, has produced effects of more distinct, 
marked, and lasting character than the Ordi- 
nance of 1787." Nothing could have been 
more emphatically an exercise of national sov- 
ereignty ; yet, as Madison said, while warmly 
commending the act, Congress did it "without 
the least colour of constitutional authority." 
The ordinance was never submitted to the states 
for ratification. The articles of confederation had 
never contemplated an occasion for such a pe- 
culiar assertion of sovereignty. " A great and 
independent fund of revenue," said Madison, 
" is passing into the hands of a single body of 
244 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

men, who can raise troops to an indefinite num- 
ber, and appropriate money to their support for 
an indefinite period of time. . . . Yet no blame 
has been whispered, no alarm has been sounded," 
even by men most zealous for state rights and 
most suspicious of Congress. Within a few 
months this argument was to be cited with tell- 
ing efi"ect against those who hesitated to accept 
the Federal Constitution because of the great 
powers which it conferred upon the general gov- 
ernment. Unless you give a government spe- 
cific powers, commensurate with its objects, it 
is liable on occasions of public necessity to ex- 
ercise powers which have not been granted. 
Avoid the dreadful dilemma between dissolu- 
tion and usurpation, urged Madison, by cloth- 
ing the government with powers that are ample 
but clearly defined. In a certain sense, the ac- 
tion of Congress in 1787 was a usurpation of 
authority to meet an emergency which no one 
had foreseen, as in the cases of Jefferson's pur- 
chase of Louisiana and Lincoln's emancipation 
of the slaves. Each of these instances marked 
in one way or another a brilliant epoch Theory of 
in American historv, and in each case foikiand 

, ' . upon which 

the public mterest was so unmistak- the ordinance 
able that the people consented and ""'^"^^'^^ 
applauded. The theory upon which the Ordi- 
nance of 1787 was based was one which nobody 
could fail to understand, though perhaps no one 
245 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

would then have known just how to put it into 
words, Itwas simply the thirteen states, through 
their delegates in Congress, dealing with the un- 
occupied national domain as if it were the com- 
mon land or folkland of a stupendous town- 
ship. 

The vast importance of the lands between 
the AUeghanies and the Mississippi was becom- 
ing more apparent every year, as the westward 
movement of population went on. But at this 
time their value was much more clearly seen by 
the southern than by the northern states. In 
the north the westward emigration was only just 
beginning to pass the AUeghanies ; in the souths 
as we have seen, it had gone beyond them sev- 
eral years before. The southern states, accord- 
ingly, took a much sounder view than the 
northern states of the importance to the Union 
of the free navigation of the Mississippi River. 
The difference was forcibly illustrated in the 
dispute with Spain, which came to a crisis in 
the summer of 1786. It will be remembered 
that by the treaties which closed the Revolu- 
tionary War the provinces of East and West 
Florida were ceded by England to Spain. West 
Florida was the region lying between the Ap- 
palachicola and the Mississippi rivers, including 
the southernmost portions of the present states 
of Alabama and Mississippi, with a bit of Lou- 
isiana. By the treaty between Great Britain 
246 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

and the United States, the northern boundar)! 
of this province was described by the thirty 
first parallel of latitude ; but Spain denied the 
right of these powers to place the boundary so 
low. Her troops were still holding Spain, hear- 
Natchez, and she strongly maintained sefret Ltkie 
that the boundary must be placed a in the treaty 
hundred miles farther north, starting threatens to 
from the Mississippi at the mouth Mississippi' 
of the Yazoo River, near the present R'^er 
site of Vicksburg. Now the treaty between 
Great Britain and the United States contained 
a secret article, wherein it was provided that if 
England could contrive to keep West Florida, 
instead of surrendering it to Spain, then the 
boundary should start at the Yazoo. This 
showed that both England and the United 
States were willing to yield the one to the other 
a strip of territory which both agreed in with- 
holding from Spain. Presently the Spanish 
court got hold of the secret article, and there 
was great indignation. Here was England giv- 
ing to the Americans a piece of land which she 
knew, and the Americans knew, was lately a 
part of West Florida, and therefore belonged 
to Spain ! Castilian grandees went to bed and 
dreamed of invincible armadas. Congress was 
promptly informed that, until this affair should 
be set right, the Americans need not expect 
the Spanish government to make any treaty of 
247 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

commerce with them ; and furthermore, let no 
American sloop or barge dare to show itself on 
the Mississippi below the Yazoo, under penalty 
of confiscation. When these threats were heard 
in America, there was great excitement every- 
where, but it assumed opposite phases in the 
north and in the south. The merchants of New 
York and Boston cared little more about the 
Mississippi River than about Timbuctoo, but 
they were extremely anxious to see a commercial 
treaty concluded with Spain. On the other hand, 
the backwoodsmen of Kentucky and the state 
of Franklin cared nothing for the trade on the 
ocean, but they would not sit still while their 
corn and their pork were confiscated on the 
way to New Orleans. The people of Virginia 
sympathized with the backwoodsmen, but her 
great statesmen realized the importance of both 
interests and the danger of a conflict between 
them. 

The Spanish envoy, Gardoqui, arrived in the 
summer of 1784, and had many interviews with 
Jay, who was then secretary for foreign affairs. 
Gardoqui Gardoqui set forth that his royal mas- 
andjay tcr was graciously pleased to deal len- 

iently with the Americans, and would confer 
one favour upon them, but could not confer 
two. He was ready to enter into a treaty of 
commerce with us, but not until we should have 
renounced all claim to the navigation of the 
248 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

Mississippi River below the Yazoo. Here the 
Spaniard was inexorable. A year of weary argu^ 
ment passed by, and he had not budged an 
inch. At last, in despair. Jay advised Congress, 
for the sake of the commercial treaty, to con- 
sent to the closing of the Mississippi, but only 
for twenty-five years. As the rumour of this 
went abroad among the settlements south of 
the Ohio, there was an outburst of wrath, to 
which an incident that now occurred gave added 
virulence. A North Carolinian trader, named 
Amis, sailed down the Mississippi with a cargo 
of pots and kettles and barrels of flour. At 
Natchez his boat and his goods were seized by 
the Spanish officers, and he was left to make his 
way home afoot through several hundred miles 
of wilderness. The story of his wrongs flew 
from one log-cabin to another, until it reached 
the distant northwestern territory. In the neigh- 
bourhood of Vincennes there were Spanish 
traders, and one of them kept a shop in the 
town. The shop was sacked by a band of Amer- 
ican soldiers, and an attempt was made to incite 
the Indians to attack the Spaniards. Indigna- 
tion meetings were held in Kentucky. The 
people threatened to send a force of militia 
down the river and capture Natchez and New 
Orleans ; and a more dangerous threat was 
made. Should the northeastern states aesert 
them and adopt Jay's suggestion, they vowed 
249 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

they would secede, and throw themselves upon 

Great Britain for protection. On the other 

hand, there was great agitation in the 

Threats of ' r a /r 

secession in seaboard towns or Massachusetts. 
!^d"in New They were disgusted with the back- 
Engiand, woodsmcn for making such a fuss 
about nothing, and with the people 
of the southern states for aiding and abetting 
them ; and during the turbulent summer of 
1786, many persons were heard to declare that, 
in case Jay's suggestion should not be adopted, 
it would be high time for the New Er.gland 
states to secede from the Union, and form a 
confederation by themselves. The situation was 
dangerous in the extreme. Had the question 
been forced to an issue, the southern states 
would never have seen their western territo- 
ries go and offer themselves to Great Britain. 
Sooner than that, they would have broken away 
from the northern states. But New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania now came over to the southern 
side, and Rhode Island, moving in her eccen- 
tric orbit, presently joined them ; and thus the 
treaty was postponed for the present, and the 
danger averted. 

This lamentable dispute was watched by 
Washington with feelings of gravest concern. 
From an early age he had indulged in prophetic 
dreams of the grandeur of the coming civiHza- 
tion in America, and had looked to the country 
250 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

beyond the mountains as the field in which the 
next generation was to find room for expansion. 
Few had been more efficient than he in aiding 
the great scheme of Pitt for overthrowing the 
French power in America, and he understood 
better than most men of his time how much 
that scheme impHed. In his early journeys in 
the wilderness he had given especial attention 
to the possibilities of water connection between 
the east and west, and he had bought for himself 
and surveyed many extensive tracts of land be- 
yond the mountains. The subject was a favour- 
ite one with him, and he looked at it from 
both a commercial and a political point of view. 
What we most needed, he said in 1770, were 
easy transit lines between east and west, as " the 
channel of conveyance of the exten- washing- 
sive and valuable trade of a risino; ton'sviews 

o on the im- 

empire." Just before resigning his portance of 
commission in 1783, Washington had t^een east 
explored the route through the Mo- ^nd west 
hawk Valley, afterward taken first by the Erie 
Canal, and then by the New York Central Rail- 
road, and had prophesied its commercial im- 
portance in the present century. Soon after 
reaching his home at Mount Vernon, he turned 
his attention to the improvement of intercourse 
with the west through the valley of the Poto- 
mac. The east and west, he said, must be 
cemented together by interests in common; 
251 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

otherwise they will break asunder. Without 
commercial intercourse they will cease to under- 
stand each other, and will thus be ripe for dis- 
agreement. It is easy for mental habits, as well 
as merchandise, to glide down stream, and the 
connections of the settlers beyond the moun- 
tains all centre in New Orleans, which is in the 
hands of a foreign and hostile power. No one 
can tell what complications may arise from this, 
argued Washington ; " let us bind these people 
to us by a chain that can never be broken ; " 
and with characteristic energy he set to work at 
once to establish that line of communication 
that has since grown into the Chesapeake and 
Ohio Canal, and into the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad. During the three years preceding the 
meeting of the Federal Convention he was 
largely occupied with this work. In 1785 he be- 
came president of a company for extending the 
navigation of the Potomac and James rivers, 
and the legislature of Virginia passed an act 
vesting him with one hundred and fifty shares 
in the stock of the company, in order to tes- 
tify their " sense of his unexampled merits." 
But Washington refused the testimonial, and 
f^igf^r- declined to take any pay for his ser- 

sighted vices, bccausc he wished to arouse 

genius and ..... 

seif-devo- the pcoplc to the political importance 
^'°" of the undertaking, and felt that his 

words would have more weight if he were 

252 



GERiMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

known to have no selfish interest in it. His 
sole purpose, as he repeatedly said, was to 
strengthen the spirit of union by cementing the 
eastern and western regions together. At this 
time he could ill afford to give his services with- 
out pay, for his long absence in war-time had 
sadly impaired his estate. But such was Wash- 
ington. 

In order to carry out the enterprise of ex- 
tending the navigation of the Potomac, it be- 
came necessary for the two states Virginia and 
Maryland to act in concert ; and early Maryland 
in 178c a ioint commission of the ^o"ferswith 

I J J ^ Virginia re- 

two States met for consultation at garding the 
Washington's house at Mount Ver- ofVhe^pTto- 
non. A compact insuring harmonious "^^'^' ^785 
cooperation was prepared by the commissioners ; 
and then, as Washington's scheme involved the 
connection of the head waters of the Potomac 
with those of the Ohio, it was found necessary 
to inv^ite Pennsylvania to become a party to the 
compact. Then Washington took the occasion 
to suggest that Maryland and Virginia, while 
they were about it, should agree upon a uniform 
system of duties and other commercial regula- 
tions, and upon a uniform currency ; and these 
suggestions were sent, together with the com- 
pact, to the legislatures of the two states. Great 
things were destined to come from these modest 
beginnings. Just as in the Yorktown cam^paign. 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

there had come into existence a multifarious 
assemblage of events, apparently unconnected 
with one another, and all that was needed was 
the impulse given by Washington's far-sighted 
genius to set them all at work, surging, swell- 
ing, and hurrying straight forward to a decisive 
result. 

Late in 1785, when the Virginia legislature 
had wrangled itself into imbecility over the 
question of clothing Congress with power over 
Madison's trade, Madison hit upon an expedient, 
^e^p'^ id- H^ prepared a motion to the effect 
vance, 1785 that commissioncrs from all the states 
should hold a meeting, and discuss the best 
method of securing a uniform treatment of 
commercial questions ; but as he was most con- 
spicuous among the advocates of a more perfect 
union, he was careful not to present the motion 
himself. It was made by another member — 
John Tyler, father of the president of that 
name, a sturdy champion of state rights, but on 
this particular question agreeing with Madison.^ 
The plan, however, was " so little acceptable 
that it was not then persisted in,'' and the 
motion was laid on the table. But after some 
weeks it was announced that Maryland had 
adopted the compact made at Mount Vernon 
concerning jurisdiction over the Potomac. Vir- 

^ See L. G. Tyler, Letters and Times of the Tylers^ 
Richmond, 1884, i. 125-134. 
254 



GERxMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

ginia instantly replied by adopting it also. Then 
it was suggested, in the report from Maryland, 
that Delaware, as well as Pennsylvania, ought 
to be consulted, since the scheme should rightly 
include a canal between the Delaware River and 
the Chesapeake Bay. And why not also con- 
sult with these states about a uniform system 
of duties? If two states can agree upon these 
matters, why not four? And still further, said 
the Maryland message, — dropping the weighti- 
est part of the proposal into a subordinate 
clause, just as women are said to put the quint- 
essence of their letters into the postscript, — 
might it not be well enough, if we are going to 
have such a conference, to invite commissioners 
from all the thirteen states to attend it? An 
informal discussion can hurt nobody. The con- 
ference of itself can settle nothing; and if four 
states can take part in it, why not thirteen ? 
Here was the golden opportunity. The Madi- 
son-Tyler motion was taken up from the table 
and carried. Commissioners from all the states 
were invited to meet on the first Monday of 
September, 1786, at Annapolis, — a safe place, 
far removed from the influence of that dread 
tyrant, the Congress, and from wicked centres 
of trade, such as New York and Boston. It 
W'-as the governor of Virginia who sent the in- 
vitations. It may not amount to much, wrote 
Madison to Monroe, but " the expedient is 
^5S 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

'setter than nothing; and, as the recommendation 
ot additional powers to Congress is within the 
purview of the commission, it may possibly lead 
to better consequences than at first occur/' 

The seed dropped by Washington had fallen 
on fruitful soil. At first it was to be just a 
little meeting of two or three states to talk 
about the Potomac River and some projected 
canals, and already it had come to be a meeting 
of all the states to discuss some uniform system 
Convention of legislation on the subject of trade. 
Sept"ir^''' This looked like progress, yet when 
1786 the convention was gathered in the 

State House at Annapolis, on the nth of 
September, the outlook was most discouraging. 
Commissioners from Virginia, Delaw^are, Penn- 
sylvania, New Jersey, and New York were 
present. Massachusetts and New Hampshire, 
Rhode Island and North Carolina, had duly 
appointed commissioners, but they were not 
there. It is curious to observe that Maryland, 
which had been so earnest in the matter, had 
nevertheless now neglected to appoint commis- 
sioners ; and no action had been taken by 
Georgia, South Carolina, or Connecticut. With 
only five states represented, the commissioners 
did not think it worth while to go on with their 
work. But before adjourning they adopted an 
address, written by Alexander Hamilton, and 
sent it to all the states. All the commissioners 
256 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

present had been empowered to consider how 
far a uniform commercial system might be 
essential to the permanent harmony of the 
states. But New Jersey had taken a step in 
advance, and instructed her delegates "to con- 
sider how far a uniform system in their com- 
mercial regulations and other important matters 
might be necessary to the common interest and 
permanent harmony of the several states." And 
other important matters,— thus again was the 
weightiest part of the business relegated to a 
subordinate clause. So gingerly was the great 
question — so dreaded, yet so inevitable — 
approached ! This reference to " other matters " 
was pronounced by the commissioners to be a 
vast improvement on the original plan; and 
Hamilton's address now urged that commis- 
sioners be appointed by all the states, to meet 
in convention at Philadelphia on the second 
Monday of the following May, " to Hamilton's 
devise such further provisions as shall f^^rtTer'step 
appear to them necessary to render '^ advance 
the constitution of the federal government ade- 
quate to the exigencies of the Union, and to 
report to Congress such an act as, when agreed 
to by them, and confirmed by the legislatures 
of every state, would effectually provide for the 
same." The report of the commissioners was 
brought before Congress in October, in the 
hope that Congress would earnestly recommend 
2.^7 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

to the several states the course of action therein 
suggested. But Nathan Dane and Rufus King 
of Massachusetts, intent upon technicahties, 
succeeded in preventing this. According to 
King, a convention was an irregular body, 
which had no right to propose changes in the 
organic law of the land, and the state legislatures 
could not properly confirm the acts of such a 
body, or take notice of them. Congress was 
the only source from which such proposals 
could properly emanate. These arguments were 
pleasing to the self-love of Congress, and it 
refused to sanction the plan of the Annapolis 
commissioners. 

In an ordinary season this would perhaps 
have ended the matter, but the winter of 1786— 
87 was not an ordinary season. All the troubles 
above described seemed to culminate just at 
this moment. The paper money craze in so 
many of the states, the shameful deeds of Rhode 
Island, the riots in Vermont and New Hamp- 
shire, the Shavs rebellion in Massachusetts, 
the dispute with Spain, and the consequent im- 
minent danger of separation between north and 
south had all come together ; and the feeling of 
thoughtful men and women throughout the 
country was one of real consternation. The last 
ounce was now to be put upon the camel's back 
in the failure of the impost amendment. In 
1783, when the cessions of western lands were 
258 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

creating a national domain, a promising plan 
had been devised for relieving the country of 
its load of debt, and furnishing Con- New York 
gress with money for its current ex- f^^^l^^ ^^'^ 
penses. All the money coming from amendment 
sales of the western folkland was to be applied 
to reducing and wiping out the principal of the 
public debt. Then the Interest of this debt 
must be provided for; and to that end Con- 
gress had recommended an Impost, or system 
of custom-house duties, upon liquors, sugars, 
teas, coffees, cocoa, molasses, and pepper. This 
impost was to be kept up for twenty-five years 
only, and the collectors were to be appointed 
by the several states, each for its own ports. 
Then for the current expenses of the govern- 
ment, supplementary funds were needed ; and 
these were to be assessed upon the several states, 
each of which might raise its quota as it saw fit. 
Such was the original plan ; but It soon turned 
out that the only available source of revenue 
was the national domain, which had thus been 
nothing less than the principal thread which had 
held the Union together. As for the impost, it 
had never been possible to get a sufBcIent num- 
ber of states to agree upon It, and of the quotas 
for current expenses, as we have seen, very little 
had found its way to the federal treasury. Under 
these dif^culties, it had been proposed that an 
amendment to the articles of confederation 
259 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

should endow Congress with the power of levy- 
ing customs-duties and appointing the collec- 
tors ; and by the summer of 1786, after endless 
wrangling, twelve states had consented to the 
amendment. But, in order that an amendment 
should be adopted, unanimous consent was ne- 
cessary. The one delinquent state, which thus 
blocked the wheels of the confederacy, was New 
York. She had her little system of duties all 
nicely arranged for what seemed to be her own 
interests, and she would not surrender this sys- 
tem to Congress. Upon the neighbouring states 
her tariff system bore hard, and especially upon 
New Jersev. In 1786 this state flatly refused 
to pay her quota until New York should stop 
discriminating against her trade. Nothing which 
occurred in that troubled year caused more 
alarm than this, for it could not be denied that 
such a declaration seemed little less than an act 
of secession on the part of New Jersey. The 
arguments of a congressional committee at last 
prevailed upon the state to rescind her declara- 
tion. At the same time there came the final 
struggle in New York over the impost amend- 
ment, against which Governor Clinton had 
firmly set his face. There was a fierce fight, in 
which Hamilton's most strenuous efforts suc- 
ceeded in carrying the amendment in part, but 
not until it had been clogged with a condition 
that made it useless. Congress, it was declared, 
260 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

might have the revenue, but New York must 
appoint the collectors; she was not going to 
have federal officials rummaging about her 
docks. The legislature well knew that to grant 
the amendment in such wise was not to grant 
it at all, but simply to reopen the whole ques- 
tion. Such was the result. Congress expostu- 
lated in vain. On the 15th of February, 1787, 
the matter was reconsidered in the New York 
legislature, and the impost amendment was de- 
feated. 

Thus, only three months before the Federal 
Convention was to meet, if indeed it was ever 
to meet. Congress was decisively informed that 
it would not be allowed to take any effectual 
measures for raising a revenue. There now 
seemed nothing left for Congress to do but 
adopt the recommendation of the Annapolis 
commissioners, and give its sanction to the pro- 
posed convention. Madison, however, had not 
waited for this, bat had prevailed upon the Vir- 
ginia legislature to go on and appoint its dele- 
gates to the convention. The events of the year 
had worked a change in the popular sentiment 
in Virginia ; people were more afraid of anarchy, 
and not quite so much afraid of centralization ; 
and now, under Madison's lead, Virginia played 
her trump card and chose George Washington 
as one of her delegates. As soon as this was 
known, there was an outburst of joy throughout 
261 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

the land. All at once the people began every- 
where to feel an interest in the proposed con- 
Sudden vention, and presently Massachusetts 

changes m changed her attitude. Up to this time 

popular sen- o r 

timent Massachusctts had been as obstinate 

in her assertion of local independence, and as 
unwilling to strengthen the hands of Congress, 
as any of the thirteen states, except New York 
and Rhode Island. But the Shays rebellion 
had served as a useful object-lesson. Part of 
the distress in Massachusetts could be traced to 
the inability of Congress to pay debts which it 
owed to her citizens. It was felt that the time 
had come when the question of a national reve- 
nue must be seriously considered. Every week 
saw fresh converts to the party which called for 
a stronger government. Then came the news 
that Virginia had chosen delegates, and that 
Washington was one of them ; then that New 
Jersey had followed the example ; then that 
Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Delaware had 
chosen delegates. It was time for Massachu- 
setts to act, and Rufus King now brought the 
matter up in Congress. His scruples as to the 
legality of the proceeding had not changed, and 
accordingly he moved that Congress should of 
itself propose a convention at Philadelphia, 
identical v/ith the one which the Annapolis com- 
missioners had already recommended. The 
motion was carried, and in this way Congress 
161 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

formally approved and adopted what was going 
on. Massachusetts immediately chose delegates, 
and was followed by New York. In April, 
Georgia and South Carolina followed suit. 
Connecticut and Maryland came on in May, 
and New Hampshire, somewhat tardily, in June. 
Of the thirteen states, Rhode Island alone re- 
fused to take any part in the proceedings. 

The convention held its meetings in that 
plain brick building in Philadelphia already 
immortalized as the place from which the De- 
claration of Independence was published to the 
world. The work which these men 

. The Federal 

were undertakmg was to determme convention 
whether that Declaration had been phUadd hia, 
for the blessing or the injury of May 14-25, 
America and of mankind. That they 
had succeeded in assembling here at all was 
somewhat remarkable, when we think of the 
curious medley of incidents that led to it. At 
no time in this distressed period would a frank 
and abrupt proposal for a convention to re- 
model the government have found favour. 
Such proposals, indeed, had been made, begin- 
ning with that of Pelatiah Webster in 178 1, 
and they had all failed to break through the 
crust of a truly English conservatism and dread 
of centralized power. Now, through what some 
might have called a strange chapter of accidents, 
before the element of causal sequence in it all 
263 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

had become so manifest as it is to us to-day, 
this remarkable group of men had been brought 
together in a single room, while even yet but 
few of them realized how thoroughly and ex- 
haustively reconstructive their work was to be. 
To most of them it was not clear whether they 
were going merely to patch up the articles of 
confederation, or to strike out into a new and 
very different path. There were a few who en- 
tertained far-reaching purposes ; the rest were 
intelligent critics rather than constructive think- 
ers : the result was surprising to all. It is worth 
our while to pause for a moment, and observe 
the character and composition of one of the 
most memorable assemblies the world has ever 
seen. Mr. Gladstone has said that just " as the 
British Constitution is the most subtle organism 
which has proceeded from progressive history, 
so the American Constitution is the most won- 
derful work ever struck off at a given time by 
the brain and purpose of man." It would be 
in the highest degree erroneous, however, to 
suppose that the Constitution of the United 
States is not, as much as any other, an instance 
of evolution from precedents. It is in that very 
fact that its excellence largely consists. 

Let us now see who the men were who did 

this wonderful work, — this Iliad, or Parthenon, 

or Fifth Symphony, of statesmanship. We shall 

not find that they were all great geniuses. Such 

264 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

is never the case in such an assembly. There 
are not enough great geniuses to go around ; 
and if there were, it is questionable if the result 
would be satisfactory. In such discussions the 
points which impress the more ordinary and less 
far-sighted members are sure to have great 
value ; especially when we bear in mind that the 
object of such an assembly is not merely to 
elaborate a plan, but to get the great mass of 
people, including the brick-layers and hod- 
carriers, to understand it well enough to vote 
for it. An ideally perfect assembly of law- 
makers will therefore contain two or three men 
of original constructive genius, two or three 
leading spirits eminent for shrewdness and tact, 
a dozen or so excellent critics representing vari- 
ous conflicting interests, and a rank and file of 
thoroughly respectable, commonplace men, un- 
fitted for shining in the work of the meeting, but 
admirably competent to proclaim its results and 
get their friends and neighbours to adopt them. 
And in such an assembly, even if it be such as 
we call ideally perfect, we must allow something 
for the presence of a few hot-headed and irre- 
concilable members, — men of inflexible mind, 
who cannot adapt themselves to circumstances, 
and will refuse to play when they see the game 
going against them. 

All these points are well illustrated in the 
assemblage of men that framed our Federal 
26^ 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

Constitution. In its composition, this group of 
men left nothing to be desired. In its strength 
and in its weakness, it was an ideally 
who were perfect assembly. There were fifty- 
assembled ^^g ^^^^ ^ij of' them respectable for 

family and for personal qualities, — men who 
had been well educated, and had done some- 
thing whereby to earn recognition in those 
troubled times. Twenty-nine were university 
men, graduates of Harvard, Yale, Columbia, 
Princeton, William and Mary, Oxford, Glas- 
gow, and Edinburgh. Twenty-six were not 
university men, and among these were Wash- 
ington and Franklin. Of the illustrious citi- 
zens who, for their public services, would natu- 
rally have been here, John Adams and Thomas 
Jefferson were in Europe ; Samuel Adams, 
Patrick Henry, and Richard Henry Lee disap- 
proved of the convention, and remained at 
home ; and the greatest man of Rhode Island, 
Nathanael Greene, who — one likes to think 
— might have succeeded in bringing his state 
into the convention, had lately died of a sun- 
stroke, at the early age of forty-four. 

Of the two most famous men present little 
need be said. The names of Washington and 
Franklin stood for supreme intelligence and 
consummate tact. Franklin had returned to 
this country two years before, and was now 
president of Pennsylvania. He was eighty-one 
266 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

years of age, the oldest man in the conven- 
tion, as Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey, aged 
twenty-six, was the youngest. The two most 
profound and original thinkers in the company 
were but little older than Dayton. Alexander 
Hamilton was thirty, James Madison thirty- 
six. Among political writers, these two men 
may be ranked in the same order with Aristotle, 
Montesquieu, and Locke ; and the "Federal- 
ist," their joint production, is one of the great- 
est treatises on government ever written. John 
Jay, who contributed a few pages to this im- 
mortal volume, had not been sent to the con- 
vention, because New York did not wish to 
have it succeed. Along with Hamilton, New 
York sent two commonplace men, Robert Yates 
and John Lansing, who were extreme and 
obstinate Antifederalists ; and the action of 
Hamilton, who was thus prevented from carry- 
ing the vote of his own state for any measure 
which he might propose, was in this way sadly 
embarrassed. For another reason, Hamilton 
failed to exert as much influence in the con- 
vention as one would have expected from his 
profound thought and his brilliant eloquence. 
Scarcely any of these men entertained what we 
should now call extreme democratic views. 
Scarcely any, perhaps, had that intense faith in 
the ultimate good sense of the people which 
was the most powerful characteristic of Jeffer- 
267 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

son. But Hamilton went to the other extreme, 
and expressed his distrust of popular govern- 
ment too plainly. His views were too aris- 
tocratic and his preference for centralization 
was too pronounced to carry conviction to his 
hearers. 

The leading part m the convention fell, 
therefore, to James Madison, a young man 
somewhat less brilliant than Hamilton, but su- 
james pcHor to him in sobriety and balance 

Madison of powcrs. Madison uscd to bc Called 
the " Father of the Constitution," and it is true 
that the government under which we live is 
more his work than that of any other one 
man. From early youth his life had been de- 
voted to the study of history and the practice 
of statesmanship. He w^as a graduate of Prince- 
ton College, an earnest student, familiar with 
all the best literature of political science from 
Aristotle down to his own time, and he had 
given especial attention to the history of federal 
government in ancient Greece, and in Switzer- 
land and Holland. At the age of twenty-five 
he had taken part in the Virginia convention 
which instructed the delegates from that state 
in Congress to bring forward the Declaration 
of Independence. During the last part of the 
war he w^as an active and influential member of 
Congress, where no one equalled or approached 
him for knowledge of English history and con- 
268 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

stitutional law. In 1784 he had returned to the 
Virghiia legislature, and been foremost in secur- 
ing the passage of the great act which gave com- 
plete religious freedom to the people of that 
state. No man understood better than he the 
causes of the alarming weakness of the federal 
government, and of the commercial disturbances 
and popular discontent of the time ; nor had 
any one worked more zealously or more adroitly 
in bringing about the meeting of this convention. 
As he stood here now, a leader in the debate, 
there was nothing grand or imposing in his ap- 
pearance. He was small of stature and slight in 
frame, like Hamilton, but he had none of Hamil- 
ton's personal magnetism. His manner was shy 
and prim, and blushes came often to his cheeks. 
At the same time, he had that rare dignity of 
unconscious simplicity which characterizes the 
earnest and disinterested scholar. He was ex- 
ceedingly sweet tempered, generous, and kind, 
but very hard to move from a path which, 
after long reflection, he had decided to be the 
right one. He looked at politics judicially, and 
was so little of a party man that on several 
occasions he was accused quite wrongfully of 
gross inconsistency. The position of leadership, 
which he won so early and kept so long, he held 
by sheer force of giant intelligence, sleepless 
industry, and an integrity which no man ever 
doubted. But he was above all things a man 
269 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

of peace. When in after years, as president of 
the United States, he was called upon to manage 
a great war, he was out of place, and his reputa- 
tion for supreme ability was temporarily lowered. 
Here in the Federal Convention we are intro- 
duced to him at the noblest and most useful 
moment of his life. 

Of the fifty-five men here assembled, Wash- 
ington, Franklin, Hamilton, and Madison were 
of the first order of ability. Many others in 
the room were gentlemen of more than ordi- 
nary talent and culture. There was 

Other 

leading John Dickinson, who had moved 

mem evs fi-Qm Pennsylvania into Delaware, 
and now came to defend the equal rights of the 
smaller states. There was James Wilson of 
Pennsylvania, born and educated in Scotland, 
one of the most learned jurists this country has 
ever seen. Beside him sat the financier, Robert 
Morris, and his namesake Gouverneur Morris 
of Morrisania, near the city of New York, the 
originator of our decimal currency, and one of 
the far-sighted projectors of the Erie Canal. 
Then there was John Rutledge of South Caro- 
lina, who ever since the Stamp Act Congress 
had been the mainstay of his state ; and with 
him were the two able and gallant Pinckneys. 
Caleb Strong, afterward ten times governor of 
Massachusetts, was a typical Puritan, -hard- 
headed and sensible ; his colleague, Rufus 
270 



GERMS OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 

King, already distinguished, for his opposition 
to negro slavery, was a man of brilliant attain- 
ments. And there were George Wythe, the 
learned chancellor of Virginia, and Daniel Car- 
roll of Maryland, who had played a prominent 
part in the events which lead to the creation of 
a national domain. Oliver Ellsworth of Con- 
necticut, afterward chief justice of the United 
States, was one of the ablest lawyers of his time ; 
with him were Roger Sherman and William 
Johnson, the latter a Fellow of the Royal So- 
ciety, and afterward president of Columbia Col- 
lege. The New Jersev delegation, consisting 
of William Livingston, David Brearley, William 
Paterson, and Jonathan Dayton, was a strong 
one ; and as to New Hampshire, it is enough 
to mention the name of John Langdon. Be- 
sides all these there were some twenty of less 
mark, men who said little, but listened and 
voted. And then there were the irreconcilables, 
Yates and Lansing, the two Antifederalists from 
New York ; and four men of much greater abil- 
itv, who took an important part in the proceed- 
ings, but could not be induced to accept the 
result. These four were Luther Martin of 
Maryland ; George Mason and Edmund Ran- 
dolph of Virginia ; and Elbridge Gerry of 
Massachusetts. 

When these men had assembled in Inde- 
pendence Hall, they chose George Washington 
271 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

president of the convention. The doors were 
locked, and an injunction of strict secrecy was 
put upon every one. The results of their work 
were known in the following September, when 
the draft of the Federal Constitution was pub- 
lished. But just what was said and done in this 
secret conclave was not revealed until fifty years 
had passed, and the aged James Madison, the 
last survivor of those who sat there, had been 
gathered to his fathers. He kept a journal of 
the proceedings, which was published after his 
death, and upon the interesting story told in 
that journal we have now to enter. 



272 



Vi 

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

THE Federal Convention did wisely 
in withholding its debates from the 
knowledge of the people. It was felt 
that discussion would be more untrammelled, 
and that its result ought to go before the coun- 
try as the collective and unanimous voice of 
the convention. There was likely to be wran- 
gling enough among themselves ; but should 
their scheme be unfolded, bit by bit, before its 
parts could be viewed in their mutual relations, 
popular excitement would become intense, 
there might be riots, and an end would be put 
to that attitude of mental repose so necessary 
for the constructive work that was to be done. 
It was thought best that the scheme should be 
put forth as a completed whole, and that for 
several years even, until the new system of 
government should have had a fair trial, the 
traces of the individual theories and preferences 
concerned in its formation should Difficult 
not be revealed. For it was generally befole'the 
assumed that a system of government convention 
new in some important respects would be 
273 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

proposed by the convention, and while the peo- 
ple awaited the result the wildest speculations 
and rumours were current. A few hoped, and 
many feared, that son:e scheme of monarchy 
would be established. Such surmises found 
their way across the ocean, and hopes were 
expressed in England that, should a king be 
chosen, it might be a younger son of George 
III. It was even hinted, with alarm, that, 
through gratitude to our recent allies, we might 
be persuaded to offer the crown to some mem- 
ber of the royal family of France. No such 
thoughts were entertained, how^ever, by any 
person present in the convention. Some of the 
delegates came with the design of simply amend- 
ing the articles of confederation by taking away 
from the states the power of regulating com- 
merce, and intrusting this power to Congress. 
Others felt that if the work were not done 
thoroughly now another chance might never be 
offered ; and these men thought it necessary to 
abolish the confederation, and establish a fed- 
eral republic, in which the general government 
should act directly upon the people. The diffi- 
cult problem was how to frame a plan of this 
sort which people could be made to understand 
and adopt. At the outset, before the conven- 
tion had been called to order, some of the dele- 
gates began to exhibit symptoms of that peculiar 
kind of moral cowardice which is wont to afflict 
274 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

free govern m en ts, and of which American his- 
tory furnishes so many instructive examples. 
In an Informal discussion It was suggested that 
palliatives and half measures would be far more 
likely to find favour with the people than any 
thorough-going reform, when Washington sud- 
denly interposed with a brief but Immortal 
speech, which ought to be blazoned in letters 
of gold, and posted on the wall of every Ameri- 
can assembly that shall meet to nominate a 
candidate, or declare a policy, or pass a law, so 
long as the weakness of human nature shall 
endure. In tones unwontedly solemn he ex- 
claimed, " It Is too probable that no Washing- 
plan we propose will be adopted. Per- 3°"^^^^ 
haps another dreadful conflict Is to be appeal 
sustained. If, to please the people, we ofl^er 
what we ourselves disapprove, how can we 
afterward defend our work ? Let us raise a 
standard to which the wise and the honest can 
repair; the event is in the hand of God." 

This noble outburst carried conviction to 
every one, and henceforth we do not hear that 
any attempt was avowedly made to avoid the 
issues as they came up. It was a wholesome 
tonic. It braced up the convention to high 
resolves, and Impressed upon all the delegates 
that they were In a situation where faltering or 
trifling was both wicked and dangerous. From 
that moment the mood in which they worked 
275 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

caught something from the glorious spirit of 
Washington. There was need of such high 
purpose, for two plans were presently laid be- 
fore the meeting, which, for a moment, brought 
out one of the chief elements of antagonism 
existing between the states, and which at first 
seemed irreconcilable. It was the happy com- 
promise which united and harmonized these 
two plans that smoothed the further work of 
the convention, and made it possible for a sta- 
ble and powerful government to be constructed. 
The first of these plans was known as the Vir- 
ginia plan. It was agreed upon in a committee 
of the delegates of that state, and was brought 
forward by Edmund Randolph, governor of 
Virginia, in the name of the state, but its chief 
author was Madison. It struck instantly at the 
root of the difficulties under which the country 
had been staggering ever since the Declaration 
of Independence. The federal government had 
The root posscsscd no mcans of enforcing obe- 
of all the dience to its laws. Its edicts were 

difficulties .1 . i 1 • 1 

Without a sanction ; and this was be- 
cause they operated upon states, and not upon 
individuals. When an individual defies the law, 
you can lock him up in jail, or levy an execu- 
tion upon his property. The immense force of 
the community is arrayed against him, and he 
is as helpless as a straw on the billows of the 
ocean. He cannot raise a militia to protect 
276 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

f.imself. But when the law is defied by a state, 
It is quite otherwise. You cannot put a state 
into jail, nor seize its goods ; you can only 
make war on it, and if you try that expedient 
you find that the state is not helpless. Its local 
pride and prejudices are aroused against you, 
and its militia will turn out in full force to up- 
hold the infraction of law. Against this obsti- 
nate and exasperated military force, what supe- 
rior force can you bring? Under some rare 
combination of circumstances you might get 
the military force of several of the other states ; 
but ordinarily, when what you are trying to do 
is simply to enforce every-day laws, and when 
you simply represent a distrusted general gov- 
ernment in conflict with a local government, 
you cannot do this. The other states will sym- 
pathize with the delinquent state ; they will feci 
that the very same condition of things which 
leads you to attack that state to-day will lead 
you to attack some other state to-morrow. 
Hence you cannot get any military help, and 
you are powerless. 

Such was the case with the Continental Con- 
gress. A novel and distrusted institution, it was 
called upon to enforce its laws upon long-estab- 
lished communities, full of sturdy independ- 
ence and obstinate local prejudices. It was 
able to act, though with clumsy slowness, as 
long as there was an enemy in the field who was 
277 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

even more dreaded. But as soon as this enemy 
had been beaten out of sight it could not act at 
all. This had been because it did not repre- 
sent the American people, but only the Ameri- 
can states. The vital force which moved it was 
not the resistless force of a whole people, but 
only a shadowy semblance of force, derived 
from a theoretical consent of thirteen corporate 
bodies, which in their corporate capacity could 
never be compelled to agree about anything 
under the sun ; and unless compelled they would 
not agree. Four years of disturbance in every 
part of the country, in the course of which troops 
had been called out in several states, and civil 
war had been narrowly averted at least half a 
dozen times, had proved this beyond all cavil. 
With almost any other people than the Amer- 
icans civil war would have come already. With 
all the vast future interests that were involved 
in these quarrels looming up before their keen, 
sagacious minds, it was a wonder that they had 
been kept from coming to blows. Such self- 
restraint had been greatly to their credit. Jt 
was the blessed fruit of more than a century of 
government by free discussion, while yet these 
states were colonies, peopled by the very cream 
of English freemen who had fought the decisive 
battle of civil and religious freedom for mankind 
in that long crisis when the Invincible Armada 
was overwhelmed and the Long Parliament 
278 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

won Its triumphs. Such self-restraint had this 
people shown in days of trial, under a vicious 
government adopted in a time of hurry and 
sore distress. But late events had gone far to 
show that it could not endure. 

The words of Randolph's opening speech are 
worth quoting in this connection. " The confed- 
eration," he said, " was made in the infancy of 
the science of constitutions, when the inefficiency 
of requisitions was unknown ; when no commer- 
cial discords had arisen among states ; when no 
rebellion like that in Massachusetts had broken 
out ; when foreign debts were not urgent ; when 
the havoc of paper money had not been fore- 
seen ; when treaties had not been violated ; and 
when nothing better could have been conceded 
by states jealous of their sovereignty. But it 
offered no securitv against foreign invasion, for 
Congress could neither prevent nor conduct a 
war, nor punish infractions of treaties or of the 
law of nations, nor control particular states 
from provoking war. The federal government 
has no constitutional power to check a quarrel 
between separate states ; nor to suppress a re- 
bellion in any one of them ; nor to establish a 
productive impost ; nor to counteract the com- 
mercial regulations of other nations ; nor to 
defend itself against the encroachments of the 
states. From the manner in which it has been 
ratified in many of the states, it cannot be 
279 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

claimed to be paramount to the state constitu- 
tions ; so that there is a prospect of anarchy 
from the inherent laxity of the government. 
As the remedy, the government to be estab- 
lished must have for its basis the republican 
principle." 

Having thus tersely stated the whole pro- 
blem, Randolph v^ent on to present the Vir- 
ginia plan. To make the federal government 
operate directly upon individuals, one provision 
The vir- was absolutely necessary. It did not 
fTadkai"' solve the whole problem, but it was 
^^"'"^ an indispensable beginning. This 

was the proposal that there should be a na- 
tional legislature, in which the American people 
instead of the American states should be repre- 
sented. For the purposes of federal legislation, 
there must be an assembly elected directly by 
the people, and with its members apportioned 
according to population. There must be such 
an assembly as our present House of Represent- 
atives, standing in the same immediate relation 
to the people of the whole country as was sus- 
tained by the assembly of each separate state 
to the people of that state. Without such direct 
representation of the whole people in the Fed- 
eral Congress, it would be impossible to achieve 
one secure step toward the radical reform of 
the weaknesses and vices of the Confederation. 
It was the only way in which the vexed ques- 
280 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

tion of one nation or thirteen could be made to 
yield a satisfactory answer. At the same time 
it could not be denied that such a proposal was 
revolutionary in character. It paved the way 
for a national consolidation which might go 
further than any one could foresee, and much 
further than was desirable. The moribund 
Congress of the Confederation, with its dele- 
gates chosen by the state assembhes, and cast- 
ing its vote simply by states, had utterly failed 
to serve as a national legislature. There was a 
good deal of truth in what John Adams once 
said of it, that it was more a diplomatic than a 
legislative body. It was, indeed, because of this 
consciously felt diplomatic character that it was 
called a Congress and not a Parliament. In its 
lack of coercive power it resembled the inter- 
national congresses of Europe rather than the 
supreme legislature of any country. To substi- 
tute abruptly for such a body a truly national 
legislature, based not upon states but upon 
population, was quietly to inaugurate a revolu- 
tion of no less magnitude than that which had 
latelv severed us from Great Britain. So bold 
a step, while all-essential in order to complete 
that revolution, and make its victorious issue 
fortunate instead of disastrous to the American 
people, was sufficiently revolutionary to awaken 
the fears of many members of the Federal Con- 
vention. To the familiar state governments 
281 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

which had so long possessed their love and alle- 
giance, it was superadding a new and untried 
government, which it was feared would swallow 
up ^the states and everywhere extinguish local 
independence. Nor can it be said that such 
fears were unreasonable. Our federal govern- 
ment has indeed shown a strong tendency to 
encroach upon the province of the state gov- 
ernments, especially since our late Civil War. 
Too much centralization is our danger to-day, 
as the weakness of the federal tie was our dan- 
ger a century ago. The rule of the Federalist 
party was needed in 1789 as the rule of the 
Republican party was needed in i 861, to put a 
curb upon the centrifugal tendencies. But after 
Federalism had fairly done its great work, at the 
beginning of the nineteenth century, it was well 
that the administration of our national affairs 
should pass into the hands of the party to which 
Thomas Jefferson and Samuel Adams belonged, 
and which Madison, in his calm, statesmanlike 
wisdom, had come to join. And now that, in our 
own day, the disruptive forces have been even 
more thoroughly and effectually overcome, it is 
time for the principles of that party to be reas- 
serted with fresh emphasis. If the day should 
ever arrive (which God forbid !) when the people 
of the different parts of our country shall allow 
their local affairs to be admiinistered by prefects 
sent from Washington, and when the seif-gov- 
282 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

ernment of the states shall have been so far lost 
as that of the departments of France, or even so 
closely limited as that of the counties of Eng- 
land, — on that day the political career of the 
American people will have been robbed of its 
most interesting and valuable features, and the 
usefulness of this nation will be lamentably im- 
paired. 

I do not think that the historian writing at 
the present day need fear any such direful calam- 
ity, for the past century has shown most in- 
structively how, in such a society as ours, the 
sense of political dangers slowly makes its way 
through the whole mass of the people, until 
movements at length are made to avert them, 
and the pendulum swings in the opposite direc- 
tion. The history of political parties in the 
United States is especially rich in lessons of 
this sort. Compared with the statesmen of the 
Federal Convention, we are at a great advantage 
in studying this question of national consolida- 
tion ; and we have no excuse for failing to com- 
prehend the attitude of the men who dreaded 
the creation of a national legislature as the en- 
tering wedge which would by and by rend asun- 
der the structure of our liberties. The great 
mind of Madison was one of the first to enter- 
tain distinctly the noble conception of two kinds 
of government operating at one and the same 
time upon the same individuals, harmonious 
283 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

with each other, but each supreme in its own 
sphere. Such is the fundamental conception of 
our partly federal, partly national, government, 
which appears throughout the Virginia plan as 
well as in the Constitution which grew out of 
it. It was a political conception of a higher 
order than had ever before been entertained ; it 
took a great deal of discussion to make it clear 
to the minds of the delegates generally ; and 
the struggle over this initial measure of a na- 
tional legislature was so bitter as to come near 
breaking up the convention. 

In its original shape the Virginia plan went 
much further toward national consolidation than 
the Constitution as adopted. The reaction 
against the evils of the loose-jointed confedera- 
tion, which Randolph so ably summed up, was 
extreme. According to the Virginia plan, the 
national legislature was to be composed of two 
houses, like the legislatures of the several states. 
The members of the lower house should be 
chosen directly by the people — members of 
the upper house, or Senate, should be elected 
by the lower house out of persons nominated by 
the state legislatures. In both the lower and the 
upper branches of this national legislature the 
votes were to be the votes of individuals, and 
no longer the votes of states, as in the Con- 
tinental Congress. Under the articles of con- 
federation each state had an equal vote, and 
284 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

two thirds were required for many of the most 
important measures. Under the proposed Con- 
stitution each state was to have a number of 
representatives proportionate either to its wealth 
or to the number of its free inhabitants, and a 
bare majority of votes was to suffice to pass 
all measures in the ordinary course of business ; 
and these rules were to apply both to the 
lower house and to the Senate. To adopt such 
a plan would overthrow the equality of the 
states altogether. It would give Virginia, the 
greatest state, sixteen representatives, where 
Georgia, the smallest state, had but one ; and 
besides, as the votes were no longer to be taken 
by states, individual members could combine 
in any way they pleased, quite irrespective of 
state lines. It was not strange that to many 
delegates in the convention such a beginning 
should have seemed revolutionary. This im- 
pression was deepened when it was further pro- 
posed not only to clothe this national legislature 
with original powers of legislation in all cases to 
which the several states are incompetent, but 
also to allow It to set aside at discretion such 
state laws as it might deem unconstitutional. It 
is interesting to find Madison, whose Federalism 
afterward came to be so moderate, now appear- 
ing as the earnest defender of this extreme pro- 
vision, so incompatible with state rights. But 
in Madison's mind at this moment, in the actual 
285 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

presence of the anarchy of the confederation, the 
only alternative which seemed to present itself 
was that of armed coercion. " A negative on 
state laws," he said, "is the mildest expedient 
that can be devised for enforcing a national de- 
cree. Should no such precaution be engrafted, 
the only remedy would be coercion. The nega- 
tive would render the use of force unnecessary. 
This prerogative of the general government is 
the great pervading principle that must control 
the centrifugal tendency of the states, which, 
without it, will continually fly out of their proper 
orbits, and destroy the order and harmony of 
the political system." But these views were not 
destined to find favour with the convention, 
which finally left the matter to be much more 
satisfactorily adjusted through the medium of 
the federal judiciary. 

Such were the fundamental provisions of the 
Virginia plan with regard to the national legis- 
lature. To carry out the laws, it was proposed 
that there should be a national executive, to be 
chosen by the national legislature for a short 
term, and ineligible a second time. Whether 
the executive power should be invested in a 
single person or in several was not specified. As 
will be seen hereafter, this was regarded as an 
extremely delicate point, with which it was 
thought best not to embarrass the Virginia plan 
at the outset. Passing lightly over this, it was 
286 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

urged that, in order to complete the action of 
the government upon individuals, there must 
be a national judiciary to determine cases arising 
under the Constitution, cases in admiralty, and 
cases in which different states or their citizens 
appear as parties. The judges were to be chosen 
by the national legislature, to hold office during 
good behaviour. 

Such, in its main outlines, was the plan which 
Randolph laid before the convention, in the 
name of the Virginia delegation. An 

° 1 • J First recep- 

audacious scheme 1 exclamied some tionofthe 
of the delegates; it was enough to ^'^s'"'^ p^^" 
take your breath away. If they were going to 
begin like this, they might as well go home, for 
all discussion would be time wasted. They were 
not sent there to set on foot a revolution, but 
to amend and strengthen the articles of con- 
federation. But this audacious plan simply 
abolished the Confederation in order to substi- 
tute for it a consolidated national government. 
Foremost in urging this objection were Yates 
and Lansing of New York, with Luther Martin 
of Maryland. Dickinson said it was pushing 
things altogether too far, and his colleague, 
George Read, hinted that the delegation from 
Delaware might feel obliged to withdraw from 
the convention if the election of representatives 
according to population should be adopted. By 
the tact of Madison and Gouverneur Morris 
287 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

this question was postponed for a few days. 
After some animated discussion, the issues be- 
came so narrowed and defined that they could 
be taken up one by one. It was first decided 
that the national legislature should consist of 
two branches. Then came a warm discussion 
as to whether the members of the lower house 
should be elected directly by the people. Curi- 
ously enough, in a country where the principle 
of popular election had long since taken such 
deep root, where the assemblies of the several 
states had been chosen by the people from the 
very beginning, there was some doubt as to 
whether the same principle could safely be ap- 
plied to the national House of Representatives. 
Gerry, with his head full of the Shays rebellion 
and the "Know Ye" measures of the neigh- 
bouring state, thought the people could not be 
trusted. " The people do not want virtue," 
said he, "but are the dupes of pretended pa- 
triots." Roger Sherman took a similar view, 
and was supported by Martin, Rutledge, and 
both the Pinckneys, but the sounder opinion 
prevailed. On this point Hamilton was at one 
with Mason, Wilson, and Dickinson. The pro- 
posed assembly, said Mason, was to be, so to 
speak, our House of Commons, and ought to 
know and sympathize with every part of the 
community. It ought to have at heart the rights 
and interests of every class of the people, and 
288 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

in no other way could this end be so completely 
attained as by popular election. " Yes/' added 
Wilson, "without the confidence of the people 
no government, least of all a republican gov- 
ernment, can long subsist. . . . The election 
of the first branch by the people is not the cor- 
ner-stone only, but the foundation of the fabric." 
"It is essential to the democratic rights of the 
community,'* said Hamilton, " that the first 
branch be directly elected by the people." 
Madison argued powerfully on the same side, 
and the question was finally decided in favour 
of popular election. 

It was now the 4th of June, when the great 
question came up which nearly wrecked the 
convention before it was settled, after a whole 
month of stormy debate. This was the ques- 
tion as to how the states should be Antagonism 

represented in the new Congress. On sStlsTn/'^^^ 
the Virginia plan, the smaller states small states 
would be virtually swamped. Unless they could 
have equal votes, without regard to wealth or 
population, they would be at the mercy of the 
great states. In the division which ensued, the 
four most populous states — Virginia, Massa- 
chusetts, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina — 
favoured the Virginia plan ; and they succeeded 
in carrying South Carolina with them. Georgia, 
too, which, though weak at that moment, pos- 
sessed considerable room for expansion, voted 
289 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

upon the same side. On the other hand, the 
states of Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, 
and Maryland — which were not only small in 
area, but were cut off from further expansion 
by their geographical situation — were not in- 
clined to give up their equal vote in either 
branch of the national legislature. At this stage 
of the proceedings the delegation from New 
Hampshire had not yet arrived upon the scene. 
On several occasions the majority of the Mary- 
land delegation went with the larger states, but 
Luther Martin, always opposed to the Virginia 
plan, usually succeeded in dividing the vote of 
the delegation. Of the New York members, 
Yates and Lansing, here as always, thwarted 
Hamilton by voting with the smaller states. 
Their policy throughout was one of obstruc- 
tion. The members from Connecticut were dis- 
posed to be conciliatory ; but New Jersey was 
obstinate and implacable. She knew what it was 
to be tyrannized over by powerful neighbours. 
The wrongs she had suffered from New York 
and Pennsylvania rankled in the minds of her 
delegates. 

Accordingly, in the name of the smalle. 
states, William Paterson laid before the con- 
The New vcntion the so-called " New Jersey 
i'feebie^'"' P^^u " for the amendment of the ar- 
paiiiative ticles of Confederation. This scheme 
admitted a federal legislature, consisting of 
290 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

a single house, an executive in the form of 
a council to be chosen by Congress, and like- 
wise a federal judiciary, with powers less exten- 
sive than those contemplated by the Virginia 
plan. It gave to Congress the power to regu- 
late foreign and domestic commerce, to levy 
duties on imports, and even to raise internal 
revenue by means of a Stamp Act. But with 
all this apparent liberality on the surface, the 
New Jersey plan was vicious at bottom. It did 
not really give Congress the power to act im- 
mediately upon individuals. The federal legis- 
lature which it proposed was to represent states, 
and not individuals, and the states were to vote 
equally, without regard to wealth or population. 
If things were to be left in this shape, there 
was no security that the powers granted to Con- 
gress could ever be really exercised. Nay, it 
was almost certain that they could not be put 
into operation. It was easy enough on paper 
to give Congress the permission to levy duties 
and regulate commerce, but such a permission 
would amount to nothing unless Congress were 
armed with the power of enforcing its decrees 
upon individuals. And it could in no wise ac- 
quire such power unless as the creature of the 
people, and not of the states. The New Jer- 
sey plan, therefore, furnished no real remedy 
for the evils which afflicted the country. It 
was vigorously opposed by Hamilton, Madi- 
291 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

son, Wilson, and King. Hamilton, indeed, took 
this occasion to offer a plan of his own, which, 
in addition to Madison's scheme of a purely 
national legislature, contained the features of a 
tenure for life or good behaviour, for the execu- 
tive and the members of the upper house. But 
to most of the delegates this scheme seemed 
too little removed from a monarchy, and Ham- 
ilton's brilliant speech in its favour, while ap- 
plauded by many, was supported by none. The 
weighty arguments of Wilson, King, and Mad- 
ison prevailed, and the New Jersey plan lost 
its original shape when it was decided that Con- 
gress should consist of two houses. The prin- 
ciple of equal state representation, however, 
remained as a stumbling-block. Paterson, sup- 
ported by his able colleague Brearley, as well 
tis by Martin and the two irreconcilables from 
New York, stoutly maintained that to depart 
from this principle would be to exceed the pow- 
ers of the convention, which assuredly was not 
intended to remodel the government from begin- 
ning to end. But Randolph answered, "When 
the salvation of the republic is at stake, it would 
be treason to our trust not to propose what we 
find necessary ; " and Hamilton pithily reminded 
the delegates that as they were there only for 
the purpose of recommending a scheme which 
would have to be submitted to the states for 
acceptance, they need not be deterred by any 
292 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

false scruples from using their wits to the best 
possible advantage. 

The debate on the merits of the question 
was an angry one. According to the Virginia 
plan, said Brearley, the three states of Virginia, 
Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania will carry 
everything before them. "It was known to 
him, from the facts within New Jersey, that 
where large and small counties were united into 
a district for electing representatives for the dis- 
trict, the large counties always carried their point, 
and consequently the large states would do so. 
. . . Was it fair, on the other hand, that Georgia 
should have an equal vote with Virginia? He 
would not say it was. What remedy, then ? 
One only : that a map of the United States be 
spread out, that all the existing boundaries be 
erased, and that a new partition of the whole 
be made into thirteen equal parts." "Yes," 
said Paterson, " a confederacy supposes sover- 
eignty in the members composing it, and sov- 
ereignty supposes equality. If we are to be 
considered as a nation, all state distinctions must 
be abolished, the whole must be thrown into 
hotchpot, and when an equal division is made, 
then there may be fairly an equality of repre- 
sentation." This argument was repeated with a 
triumphant air, as seeming to reduce the Vir- 
ginia plan to absurdity. Paterson went on to 
say that " there was no more reason that a great 
293 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

individual state, contributing much, should have 
more votes than a small one, contributing little, 
than that a rich individual citizen should have 
more votes than an indigent one. If the ratable 
property of A was to that of B as forty to one, 
ought A, for that reason, to have forty times as 
many votes as B ? . . . Give the large states an 
influence in proportion to their magnitude, and 
what will be the consequence ? Their ambition 
will be proportionally increased, and the small 
states will have everything to fear. It was once 
proposed by Galloway [in the first Continental 
Congress] that America should be represented 
in the British Parliament, and then be bound 
by its laws. America could not have been en- 
titled to more than one third of the representa- 
tives which would fall to the share of Great 
Britain : would American rights and interests 
have been safe under an authority thus consti- 
tuted ? " Then, warming with the subject, he 
exclaimed, " If the great states wish to unite on 
such a plan, let them unite if they please, but 
let them remember that they have no authority 
to compel the others to unite. . . . Shall I sub- 
mit the welfare of New Jersey with five votes 
in a council where Virginia has sixteen ? . . . I 
will never consent to the proposed plan. I will 
not only oppose it here, but on my return home 
will do everything in my power to defeat i^ 



294 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

there. Neither my state nor myself will ever 
submit to tyranny." 

Paterson was ably answered by James Wilson 
of Pennsylvania, who pointed out the absurdity 
of giving 180,000 men in one part of the coun- 
try as much weight in the national legislature 
as 750,000 in another part. It is unjust, he 
said. " The gentleman from New Jersey is can- 
did. He declares his opinions boldly. I com- 
mend him for it. I will be equally candid. . . . 
I never will confederate on his principles." 
The convention grew nervous and excited over 
this seemingly irreconcilable antagonism. The 
discussion was kept up with much learning and 
acuteness by Madison, Ellsworth, and Martin, 
and history was ransacked for testimony from 
the Amphiktyonic Council to Old Sarum, and 
back again to the Lykian League. Madison, 
rightly reading the future, declared that if once 
the proposed union should be formed, the real 
danger would come not from the rivalry be- 
tween large and small states, but from the an- 
tagonistic interests of the slaveholding and non- 
slaveholding states. Hamilton pointed out that 
in the State of New York five counties had a 
majority of the representatives, and yet the citi- 
zens of the other counties were in no danger 
of tyranny, as the laws have an equal operation 
upon all. Rufus King called attention to the 



295 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

fact that the rights of Scotland were secure from 
encroachments, although her representation in 
Parliament was necessarily smaller than that of 
England. But New Jersey and Delaware, mind- 
ful of recent grievances, were not to be argued 
down or soothed. Gunning Bedford of Dela- 
ware was especially violent. " Pretences to sup- 
port ambition," said he, " are never wanting. 
The cry is. Where is the danger? and it is 
insisted that although the powers of the general 
government will be increased, yet it will be for 
the good of the whole ; and although the three 
great states form nearly a majority of the peo- 
ple of America, they never will injure the lesser 
states. Gentlemen^ I do not trust you. If you 
possess the power, the abuse of it could not be 
checked ; and what then would prevent you from 
exercising it to our destruction ? . . . Sooner 
than be ruined, there are foreign powers who will 
take us by the hand. I say this not to threaten 
or intimidate, but that we should reflect seri- 
ously before we act." This language called forth 
a rebuke from Rufus King. " I am concerned," 
said he, " for what fell from the gentleman from 
Delaware ; take a foreign power by the hand I I 
am sorry he mentioned it, and I hope he is able 
to excuse it to himself on the score of passion." 
The situation had become dangerous. "The 
convention," said Martin, " was on the verge of 
dissolution, scarce held together by the strength 
2q6 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

of a hair." When things were looking darkest, 
OUver Ellsworth and Roger Sherman suggested 
a compromise. " Yes/' said Franklin, " when a 
joiner wishes to fit two boards, he sometimes 
pares off a bit from both." The famous Con- 
necticut compromise led the way to ^j^^ ^^^_ 
the arrangement which was ultimately nectkut 

"^ ,. 1 • 1 1 ' compromise 

adopted, according to which the na- 
tional principle was to prevail in the House of 
Representatives, and the federal principle in the 
Senate. But at first the compromise met with 
little favour. Neither party was willing to give 
way. " No compromise for us," said Luther 
Martin. " You must give each state an equal 
suffrage, or our business is at an end." "Then 
we are come to a full stop," said Roger Sher- 
man. " 1 suppose it was never meant that we 
should break up without doing something." 
When the question as to allowing equality of 
suffrage to the states in the Federal Senate was 
put to vote, the result was a tie. Connecticut, 
New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Mary- 
land—five states — voted in the affirmative; 
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North 
Carolina, and South Carolina — five states — 
voted in the negative ; the vote of Georgia was 
divided and lost. It was Abraham Baldwin, a 
native of Connecticut and lately a tutor in Yale 
College, a recent emigrant to Georgia, who thus 
divided the vote of that state, and prevented a 
297 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

decision which would in all probability have 
broken up the convention. His state was the 
last to vote, and the house was hushed in 
anxious expectation, when this brave and wise 
young man yielded his private conviction to 
what he saw to be the paramount necessity of 
keeping the convention together. All honour 
to his memory ! 

The moral effect of the tie vote was in favour 
of the Connecticut compromise ; for no one 
could doubt that the little states. New Hamp- 
shire and Rhode Island, had they been repre- 
sented in the division, would have voted upon 
that side. The matter was referred to a com- 
mittee as impartially constituted as possible, with 
Elbridge Gerry as chairman ; and on the 5th of 
July, after a recess of three days, the committee 
reported in favour of the compromise. Fresh 
objections on the part of the large states were 
now offered by Wilson and Governeur Morris, 
and gloom again overhung the convention. 
Gerry said that, while he did not fully approve 
of the compromise, he had nevertheless sup- 
ported it, because he felt sure that if nothing 
were done war and confusion must ensue, the 
old confederation being already virtually at an 
end. George Mason observed that "it could 
not be more inconvenient for any gentleman to 
remain absent from his private affairs than it 
was for him ; but he would bury his bones in 
298 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

that city rather than expose his country to the 
consequences of a dissolution of the conven- 
tion." Mason's subsequent course was not quite 
in keeping with the promise of this brave speech, 
and in Gerry we shall observe a similar diver- 
gence. At present a timely speech from Mad- 
ison soothed the troubled waters ; but it was 
only after eleven days of somewhat more tran- 
quil debate that the compromise was adopted 
on the 1 6th of July. Even then it was but 
narrowly secured. The ayes were Connecticut, 
New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and North 
Carolina, — five states ; the noes were Pennsyl- 
vania, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia, 
— four states ; Gerry and Strong against King 
and Gorham divided the vote of Massachusetts, 
which was thus lost. New York, for reasons 
presently to be stated, was absent. It is accord- 
ingly to Elbridge Gerry and Caleb Strong that 
posterity are indebted for here preventing a tie, 
and thus bringing the vexed question to a happy 
issue. 

According to the compromise secured with so 
much difficulty, it was arranged that in the lower 
house population was to be represented, and in 
the upper house the states, each of which, with- 
out regard to size, was forever to be entitled to 
two senators. In the lower house there was to 
be one representative for every 40,000 inhabit- 
ants, but at Washington's suggestion the num- 
299 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

ber was changed to 30,000, so as to increase the 
house, which then seemed hkely to be too small 
in numbers. Some one suggested that with the 
growth of population that rate would make an 
unwieldy house within a hundred and fifty years 
from that time, whereat Gorham of Massachu- 
setts laughed to scorn the idea that any system 
of government they could devise in that room 
could possibly last a hundred and fifty years. 
The difficulty has been surmounted by enlarg- 
ing from time to time the basis of representa- 
tion. It now seemed inadvisable that the sena- 
tors should be chosen by the lower house out 
of persons nominated by the state legislatures; 
and it was accordingly decided that they should 
be not merely nominated, but elected, by the 
state legislatures. Thus the Senate was made 
quite independent of the lower house. At the 
same time, the senators were to vote as individ- 
uals, and thus the old practice of voting by 
states, except in certain peculiar emergencies, was 
finally done away with. 

It is seldom, if ever, that a political compro- 
mise leaves things evenly balanced. Almost 
every such arrangement, when once set work- 
ing, weighs down the scales decidedly to the 
one side or the other. The Connecticut com- 
promise was really a decisive victory for Madi- 
son and his party, although it modified the Vir- 
ginia plan so considerably. They could well 
300 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

afford to defer to the fears and prejudices of the 
smaller states in the structure of the SenatCj 
for by securing a lower house, which it was a de- 
represented the American people, and for MldT-"'^^ 
not the American states, they won the son's scheme 
whole battle in so far as the question of radically 
reforming the government was concerned. As 
soon as the foundation was thus laid for a gov- 
ernment which should act directly upon individ- 
uals, it obviously became necessary to abandon 
the articles of confederation, and work out a 
new constitution in all its details. The plan, as 
now reported, omitted the obnoxious adjective 
*' national,*' and spoke of the federal legisla- 
ture and federal courts. But to the men who 
were still blindly wedded to the old confedera- 
tion this soothing change of phraseology did 
not conceal their defeat. On the very day that 
the compromise was favourably reported by the 
committee, Yates and Lansing quit the conven- 
tion in disgust, and went home to New York. 
After the departure of these uncongenial col- 
leagues, Hamilton might have acted with power, 
had he not known too well that the sentiment 
of his state did not support him. As a mere in- 
dividual he could do but little, and accordingly 
he went home for a while to attend to pressing 
business, returning just in time to irreconciia- 
take part in the closing scenes. His biesgohome 
share in the work of framing the Federal Con- 
301 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

Btitution was very small. About the time that 
Hamilton returned, Luther Martin, whose wrath 
had waxed hotter every day, as he saw power 
after power extended to the federal government, 
at length gave way and went back to Maryland, 
vowing that he would have nothing more to do 
with such high-handed proceedings. 

While the Connecticut compromise thus scat- 
tered a few scintillations of discontent, and re- 
lieved the convention of some of its most dis- 
cordant elements, its general effect was wonder- 
fully harmonizing. The men who had opposed 
the Virginia plan only through their dread of 
the larger states were now more than concili- 
ated. The concession of equal representation 
in the Senate turned out to have been a master 
stroke of diplomacy. As soon as the little states 
were assured of an equal share in the control of 
one of the two central legislative bodies, they 
suddenly forgot their scruples about thoroughly 
overhauling the government, and none were 
readier than they to intrust extensive powers to 
the new Congress. Paterson of New Jersey, 
the fiercest opponent of the Virginia plan, be- 
came from that time forth to the end of his life 
the most devoted of Federalists. 

That first step which proverbiallv gives the 

most trouble had now been fairly taken. But 

other compromises were needed before the work 

of construction could properly be carried out. 

302 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

As the antagonism between great and small 
states disappeared from the scene, other antag- 
onisms appeared. It is worth noting other an- 
that iust for a moment there was re- tagonisms; 
vealed a glnnmermg or jealousy and of the future 
dread on the part of the eastern states ^""^^ 
toward those of which the foundations were laid 
in the northwestern territory. Many people in 
New England feared that their children would 
be drawn westward in such numbers as to create 
immense states beyond the Ohio ; and thus it 
was foreseen that the relative political weight of 
New England in the future would be dimin- 
ished. To a certain extent this prediction has 
been justified by events, but Roger Sherman 
rightly maintained that it afforded no just 
grounds for dread. King and Gerry introduced 
a most illiberal and mischievous motion, that 
the total number of representatives from new 
states must never be allowed to exceed the total 
number from the original thirteen. Such an 
arrangement, which would surely have been 
enough to create that antagonism between east 
and west which it sought to forestall and avoid, 
was supported by Massachusetts and Connecti- 
cut, with Delaware and Maryland ; but it was 
defeated by the combination of New Jersey with 
the four states south of Maryland. The ground 
was thus cleared for a very different kind of 
sectional antagonism, — that which, as Madison 
J 03 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

truly said, would prove the most deep-seated 
and enduring of all, — the antagonism between 
north and south. The first great struggle be- 
tween the pro-slavery and anti-slavery parties 
Antagonism began in the Federal Convention, and 
stttran]'"' it resulted in the first two of the long 
free states series of compromises by which the 
irrepressible conflict was postponed until the 
north had waxed strong enough to confront 
the dreaded spectre of secession, and, summon- 
ing all its energies in one stupendous eflx)rtj 
exorcise it forever. From this moment down to 
1865 we shall continually be made to realize 
how the American people had entered into the 
shadow of the coming Civil War before they 
had fairly emerged from that of the Revolution ; 
and as we pass from scene to scene of the sol- 
emn story, we shall learn how to be forever 
grateful for the sudden and final clearing of the 
air wrought by that frightful storm which men 
not yet old can still so well remember. 

The first compromise related to the distribu- 
tion of representatives between north and south. 
Was representation in the lower house of Con- 
gress to be proportioned to wealth, or to popula- 
tion ; and if the latter, were all the inhabitants, 
or only all the free inhabitants, to be counted ? 
It was soon agreed that wealth was difficult to 
reckon and population easy to count; and to 
an extent sufficient for all ordinary purposes, 
304 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

population might serve as an index of wealth. 
A state with 500,000 inhabitants would be in 
most cases richer than one with 400,000. In 
those days, when cities were few and small, this 
was approximately true. In our day it is not 
at all true. A state with large commercial and 
manufacturing cities is sure to be much richer 
than a state in which the population is chiefly 
rural. The population of Massachusetts is 
somewhat smaller than that of Indiana ; but her 
aggregate wealth is more than double that of 
Indiana. Disparities like this, which do not 
trouble us to-day, would have troubled the 
Federal Convention. We no longer think it 
desirable to give political representation to 
wealth, or to anything but persons. We have 
become thoroughly democratic, but our great- 
grandfathers had not. To them it seemed quite 
essential that wealth should be represented as 
well as persons ; but they got over the main 
difficulty easily, because under the economic 
conditions of that time population could serve 
roughly as an index to wealth, and it was much 
easier to count noses than to assess the value 
of farms and stock. 

But now there was in all the southern states, 
and in most of the northern, a peculiar species 
of collective existence, which might be described 
either as wealth or as population. As human 
beings the slaves might be described as pop- 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

ulation, but in the eye of the law they were 
chattels. In the northern states slavery was 
Were slaves rapidly disappearing, and the property 
to be reck- [^ negroes was so small as to be 

oned as per- '-^ . . 

sons or as hardly worth considering ; while south 
chattels ? ^£|yj ^^^^ ^^ j Dixon's Hnc this peculiar 

kind of property was the chief wealth of the states. 
But clearly, in apportioning representation, in 
sharing political power in the federal assembly, 
the same rule should have been applied impar- 
tially to all the states. At this point. Pierce 
Butler and Cotesworth Pinckney of South 
Carolina insisted that slaves were part of the 
population, and as such must be counted in 
ascertaining the basis of representation. A fierce 
and complicated dispute ensued. The South 
Carolina proposal suggested a uniform rule, 
but it was one that would scarcely alter the 
political weight of the north, while it would 
vastly increase the weight of the south ; and it 
would increase it most in just the quarter where 
slavery was most deeply rooted. The power of 
South Carolina, as a member of the Union, 
would be doubled by such a measure. Hence 
the northern delegates maintained that slaves, 
as chattels, ought no more to be reckoned as 
part of the population than houses or ships. 
" Has a man in Virginia," exclaimed Paterson, 
"a number of votes in proportion to the num- 
ber of his slaves ? And if negroes are not re- 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

presented in the states to which they belong, 
why should they be represented in the general 
government? . . . If a meeting of the people 
were to take place in a slave state, would the 
slaves vote ? They would not. Why then 
should they be represented in a federal govern- 
ment ? " "I can never agree," said Gouver- 
neur Morris, " to give such encouragement to 
the slave-trade as would be given by allowing 
the southern states a representation for their 
negroes. ... I would sooner submit myself 
to a tax for paying for all the negroes in the 
United States than saddle posterity with such a 
constitution." 

The attitude taken by Virginia was that of 
peacemaker. On the one hand, such men as 
Washington, Madison, and Mason, who were 
earnestly hoping to see their own state soon 
freed from the curse of slavery, could not fail 
to perceive that if Virginia were to gain an in- 
crease of political weight from the existence of 
that institution, the difficulty of getting the state 
legislature to abolish it would be enhanced. 
But, on the other hand, they saw that South 
Carolina was inexorable, and that her refusal to 
adopt the Constitution for this reason would 
certainly carry Georgia with her, and probably 
North Carolina also. Even had South Caro- 
lina alone been involved, it was not simply a 
question of forming a Union which should 
307 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

either include her or leave her out in the cold. 
The case was much more complicated than thatc 
It was really doubtful if, without the cordial 
assistance of South Carolina, a Union could be 
formed at all. A Federal Constitution had not 
only to be framed, but it had to be presented 
to the thirteen states for adoption. It was by- 
no means clear that enough states would ratify 
it to enable the experiment of the new govern- 
ment to go into operation. New York and 
Rhode Island w^ere known to be bitterly opposed 
to it ; Massachusetts could not be counted on 
as sure ; to add South Carolina to this list would 
be to endanger everything. The event justified 
this caution. We shall hereafter see that it was 
absolutely necessary to satisfy South Carolina, 
and that but for her ratification, coming just 
at the moment when it did, the work of the 
Federal Convention would probably have been 
done in vain. It was a clear perception of the 
wonderful complication of interests involved in 
the final appeal to the people that induced the 
Virginia statesmen to take the lead in a com- 
promise. Four years before, in 1783, when 
Congress was endeavouring to apportion the 
quotas of revenue to be required of the several 
states, a similar dispute had arisen. If taxation 
were to be distributed according to population, 
it made a great difference whether slaves were 
to be counted as population or not. If slaves 

308 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

tvere to be counted, the southern states would 
have to pay more than their equitable share 
into the federal treasury ; if slaves were not to 
be counted, it was argued at the north that 
they would be paying less than their equitable 
share. Consequently at that time the north 
had been inclined to maintain that the slaves 
were population, while the south had preferred 
to regard them as chattels. Thus we see that 
in politics, as well as in algebra, it makes all 
the difference in the world whether you start 
with plus or with minus. On that occasion 
Madison had offered a successful compromise, 
in which a slave figured as three fifths The three 
of a freeman ; and Rutledge of South fifths com- 

^ , . , ° . , promise : 

Carolina, who was now present m the a genuine 
convention, had supported the mea- ^"s^l^^ 

■' _ f r solution, if 

sure. Madison now proposed the ever there 
same method of getting over the 
difficulty about representation, and his com- 
promise was adopted. It was agreed that in 
counting population, whether for direct taxa- 
tion or for representation in the lower house of 
Congress, five slaves should be reckoned as 
three individuals. 

All this was thoroughly illogical, of course ; 
it left the question whether slaves are popula- 
tion or chattels for theorizers to wrangle over, 
and for future events to decide. It was easy for 
James Wilson to show that there was neither 

Z^9 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

rhyme nor reason in it: but he subscribed to 
it, nevertheless, just as the northern aboHtion- 
ists, Rufus King and Gouverneur Morris, joined 
with Washington and Madison, and with the 
pro-slavery Pinckneys, in subscribing to it, be- 
cause they all believed that without such a com- 
promise the Constitution would not be adopted ; 
and in this there can be little doubt that they 
were right. The evil consequences were un- 
questionably very serious indeed. Henceforth, 
so long as slavery lasted, the vote of a south- 
erner counted for more than the vote of a 
northerner ; and just where negroes were most 
numerous the power of their masters became 
greatest. In South Carolina there soon came to 
be more blacks than whites, and the application 
of the rule therefore went far toward doubling 
the vote of South Carolina in the House of 
Representatives and in the electoral college. 
Every five slaveholders down there were equal 
in political weight to not less than eight farmers 
or merchants in the north ; and thus this trou- 
blesome state acquired a power of working mis- 
chief out of all proportion to her real size. At 
a later date the operation of the rule in Missis- 
sippi was similar ; and in general it was just the 
most backward and barbarous parts of the Union 
that were thus favoured at the expense of the 
most civilized parts. Admitting all this, how- 
ever, it remains undeniable that the Constitu- 
310 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

tion saved us from anarchy ; and there can be 
little doubt that slavery and every other rem- 
nant of barbarism in American society in other 
would have thriven far more lustily yds, it was 

•' the best soiu- 

under a state of chronic anarchy than tionattain- 
was possible under the Constitution. the^dr"cum- 
Four years of concentrated warfare, ^"^^"^^^ 
animated by an intense and lofty moral purpose, 
could not hurt the character or mar the fortunes 
of the people, like a century of aimless and mis- 
cellaneous squabbling over a host of petty local 
interests. The War of Secession was a terrible 
ordeal to pass through ; but when one tries to 
picture what might have happened in this fair 
land without the work of the Federal Conven- 
tion, the imagination stands aghast. 

The second great compromise between north- 
ern and southern interests related to the' aboli- 
tion of the foreign slave-trade and the compromise 
power of the federal government over ^^tweenNew 

i o tngland and 

commerce. All the states except South South caro- 

/-^ 1 • \ r> ' '11- lina as to the 

Carohna and Cjeorgia wished to stop foreign siave- 
the importation of slaves; but the ^""^^ 
physical conditions of rice and indigo culture 
exhausted the negroes so fast that these two 
states felt that their industries would be dried 
up at the very source if the importation of fresh 
negroes were to be stopped. Cotesworth Pinck- 
nev accordingly declared that South Carolina 
wouM consider a vote to abolish the slave-trade 
311 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

as simply a polite way of telling her that she 
was not wanted in the Union. On the other 
hand, the three New England states present in 
the convention had made up their minds that it 
would not do to allow the several states any 
longer to regulate commerce each according to 
its own whim. It was of vital importance that 
this power should be taken from the states and 
lodged in Congress ; otherwise, the Union would 
soon be rent in pieces by commercial disputes. 
The policy of New York had thoroughly im- 
pressed this lesson upon all the neighbouring 
states. But none of the southern states were in 
favour of granting this power unreservedly to 
Congress. H a navigation act could be passed 
by a simple majority in Congress, it was feared 
that the New Englanders would get all the carry- 
ing tr^de into their own hands, and then charge 
ruinous freights for carrying rice, indigo, and 
tobacco to the north and to Europe. On this 
point, accordingly, the southern delegates acted 
as a unit in insisting that Congress should not 
be empowered to regulate commerce, except by 
a two thirds vote of both houses. The New 
Englanders insisted that such a restriction would 
tie the hands of the federal government most 
unfortunately. But if a tariff act could be passed 
by a simple majority, it was feared that we should 
come to see — well, just what we have come to 
see: the shameful system of wholesale robbery 
312 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

upon which Congress had entered by 1828, and 
which during the last thirty years has been 
growing ever more cynical, ruthless, and base. 
Here were the materials ready for a compromise, 
or, as the stout abolitionist, Gouverneur Morris, 
truly called it, a " bargain" between New Eng- 
land and the far south. New Hampshire, Mas- 
sachusetts, and Connecticut consented to the 
prolonging of the foreign slave-trade for twenty 
years, or until 1808 ; and in return South Caro- 
lina and Georgia consented to the clause em- 
powering Congress to pass navigation acts and 
otherwise regulate commerce by a simple ma- 
jority of votes. At the same time, as a conces- 
sion to rice and indigo, the New Englanders 
agreed that Congress should be forever pro- 
hibited from taxing exports; and thus one 
remnant of mediaeval political economy was 
neatly swept away. 

This compromise was carried against the 
sturdy opposition of Virginia. The language of 
George Mason of Virginia is worth quoting, for 
it was such as Theodore Parker might have 
used. He called the slave-trade " this infernal 
traffic." " Slavery," said he, " discour- This hst 
ages arts and manufactures. The 3;°f^ 
poor despise labour when performed make the 

f ■'^ , . adhesion of 

by Slaves. They prevent the im- Virginia 
migration of whites, who really ^^^^^^^"^ 
strengthen and enrich a country. They produce 
3^3 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

the most pernicious effect on manners. Ever) 
master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They 
bring the judgment of Heaven on a country. 
As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in 
the next world, they must be in this. By an 
inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence 
punishes national sins by national calamities.'* 
But these prophetic words were powerless against 
the combination of New England with the far 
south. One thing was now made certain, — that 
the vast influence of Rutledge and the Pinckneys 
would be thrown unreservedly in behalf of the 
new Constitution. " I will confess," said Cotes- 
worth Pinckney, " that I had prejudices against 
the eastern states before I came here, but I have 
found them as liberal and candid as any men 
whatever." But this compromise, which finally 
secured South Carolina and Georgia, made Vir- 
ginia for the moment doubtful ; for Mason and 
Randolph were so disgusted at the absolute 
power over commerce conceded to Congress 
that, when the Constitution was finished and 
engrossed on paper, they refused to sign it. 

It is difficult to read this or any other episode 
in our history whereby negro slavery was ex- 
tended and fostered without burning indigna- 
tion. But this is not the proper mood for the 
historian, whose aim is to interpret men's actions 
by the circumstances of their time, in order to 
judge their motives correctly. In 1787 slavery 

314 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 



was the cloud like unto a man's hand which 
portended a deluge, but those who could truly 
read the signs were few. From north to south, 
slavery had been slowly dying out for nearly 
fifty years. It had become extinct in Massachu- 
setts, it was nearly so in all the other northern 
states, and it had just been forever prohibited 
in the national domain. In Maryland and Vir- 
ginia there was a strong and growing party in 
favour of abolition. The movement had even 
gathered strength in North Carolina. Only the 
rice-swamps of the far south remained wedded 
to their idols. It was quite generally believed 
that slavery was destined speedily to expire, to 
give place to a better system of labour, with- 
out any great danger or disturbance ; and this 
opinion was distinctly set forth by many dele- 
gates in the convention.^ Even Charles Pinck- 
ney went so far as to express his hope that 

1 The slave-population of the United States, according to 
the census of 1790, was thus distributed among the states : — 



North 



South 



New Hampshire . 


. 158 


Delaware 






8,887 


Vermont .... 


17 


Maryland 






103,036 


Massachusetts . 


— 


Virginia . 






293,427 


Rhode Island . . . . 


952 


North Carolina 






100,572 


Connecticut . . . 


2,759 


South Carolina 






107,094 


New York . . . 


21,324 


Georgia 






29,264 


New Jersey 


11,423 


Kentucky 






. 11,830 


Pennsylvania . 


3,737 


Tennessee . 






3,417 




40,370 


657,527 


Total . . 




fiCii 9.c\n 




315 


7 / 







THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

South Carolina, if not too much meddled with, 
would by and by voluntarily rank herself among 
the emancipating states ; but his older cousin 
declared himself bound in candour to acknow- 
ledge that there was very little likelihood indeed 
of so desirable an event. Not even these South 
Carolinians ventured to defend slavery on prin- 
ciple. This belief in the moribund condition of 
slavery prevented the convention from realizing 
the actual effect of the concessions which were 
made. Very little cotton was grown at that time, 
and none was sent to England. The industrial 
revolution about to be wrought by the inven- 
tions of Arkwright and Hargreaves, Cartwright 
and Watt and Whitney, could not be foreseen. 
Nor could it be foreseen that presently, when 
there should thus arise a great demand tor slaves 
from Virginia as a breeding-ground, the aboli- 
tionist party in that state would disappear, leav- 
ing her to join in the odious struggle for in- 
troducing slavery into the national domain. 
Though these things were so soon to happen, 
the wisest man in 1787 could not foresee them. 
The convention hoped that twenty years would 
see not only the end of the foreign slave-trade, 
but the restriction and diminution of slavery 
itself. It was in such a mood that they com- 
pleted the compromise by recommending a tariff 
of ten dollars a head upon all negroes imported, 
while at the same time a clause was added for 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

insuring the recovery of fugitive slaves, quite 
similar to the clause in the ordinance for the 
government of the northwestern territory. 

It was the three great compromises here de- 
scribed that laid the foundations of our Federal 
Constitution. The first compromise, by con- 
ceding equal representation to the states in the 
Senate, enlisted the small states in 
favour of the new scheme, and by tionsofthe 
establishing a national system of re- ^Z'll!^r 
presentation in the lower house, pre- ^^idin com- 

, 1 r 1 promise 

pared the way tor a government that 
could endure. This was Madison's great vic- 
tory, secured by the aid of Sherman and Ells- 
worth, without which nothing could have been 
effected. The second compromise, at the cost 
of giving disproportionate weight to the slave 
states, gained their support for the more per- 
fect union that was about to be formed. The 
third compromise, at the cost of postponing 
for twenty years the abolition of the foreign 
slave-trade, secured absolute free-trade between 
the states, with the surrender of all control over 
commerce into the hands of the federal govern- 
ment. After these steps had been taken, the 
most difficult and dangerous part of the road 
had been travelled ; the remainder, though ex- 
tremely important, was accomplished far more 
easily. It was mainly the task of building on 
the foundations already laid. 
317 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

In the grants to the federal government o{ 
powers hitherto reserved to the several states, 
the diversity of opinion among the members 
of the convention was but sHght compared to 
the profound antagonism which had been al- 
layed by the three initial compromises. It was 
admitted, as a matter of course, that the federal 
government alone could coin money, fix the 
Powers standard of weights and measures, 

thrfederai cstabHsh post-offices and post-roads, 
government and grant patents and copyrights. To 
it alone was naturally intrusted the whole busi- 
ness of war and of international relations. It 
could define and punish felonies committed on 
the high seas ; it could maintain a navy and 
issue letters of marque and reprisal ; it could 
support an army and provide for calling forth 
the militia to execute the laws of the Union, to 
suppress insurrections, and to repel invasions. 
But in relation to this question of the army and 
the militia there was some characteristic discus- 
sion. It was at first proposed that Congress 
should have the power " to subdue a rebellion 
in any state on the application of its legisla- 
ture." The Shays rebellion was then fresh in 
the memory of all the delegates, and their ar- 
guments simply reflected the impression which 
that unpleasant affair had left upon them. 
Charles Pinckney, Gouverneur Morris, and 
John Langdon wished to have the power given 

318 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION ' 

to Congress unconditionally, without waiting 
for an application from the legislature. But 
Gerry, who had been on the ground, spoke 
sturdily against such a needless infraction of 
state rights. He was utterly opposed, he said, 
to " letting loose the myrmidons of the United 
States on a state without its own consent. The 
states will be the best judges in such cases. 
More blood would have been spilt in Massa- 
chusetts in the late insurrection if the general 
authority had intermeddled." Ellsworth sug- 
gested that Congress should use its discretion 
only in cases where the legislature of the state 
could not meet ; but Randolph forcibly replied 
that if Congress is to judge whether a state 
legislature can or cannot meet, the difficulty is 
in no wise surmounted. Gerry's view at last 
prevailed, and in accordance therewith it was 
decided that the federal power should guaran- 
tee to every state a republican form of govern- 
ment, and should protect each of them against 
any invasion ; and on application of the legis- 
lature, or of the executive (if the legislature 
could not be convened), it should protect them 
against domestic violence. This arrangement 
did not fully provide against such an emer- 
gency as that of rival and hostile executives in 
the same state, as under the so-called "carpet- 
bag" governments which followed after the 
War of Secession, but it was doubtless as sound 
319 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

a provision as any general constitution could 
make. 

The federal government was further empow- 
ered to borrow money on the credit of the 
United States ; and it was declared that all 
debts contracted and engagements entered into 
before the adoption of this constitution should 
be as valid against the United States under this 
constitution as under the confederation. There 
was to be no repudiation or readjustment of 
debts on the ground of inability to pay. Con- 
gress was further empowered to establish a uni- 
form rule of naturalization and a uniform law 
of bankruptcy. But it was prohibited from 
passing bills of attainder or ex post facto laws, 
or suspending the writ of habeas corpus^ except 
under the stress of rebellion or invasion. It 
was provided that all duties, imposts, or excises 
should be uniform throughout the United 
States. The federal government could not give 
preference to one state over another in its com- 
mercial regulations. It could not tax exports. 
It could not draw money from the treasury 
save by due process of appropriation, and all 
bills relating to the raising of revenue must ori- 
ginate in the lower house, which directly repre- 
sented the people. Congress was empowered 
to admit new states into the Union, but it was 
not allowed to interfere with the territorial areas 
of states already existing without the express 
320 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

consent of the local legislatures. To insure the 
independence of the federal government, it 
was provided that senators and representatives 
should be paid out of the federal treasury, and 
not by their respective states, as had been the 
case under the Confederation. Except for such 
offences as treason, felony, or breach of the 
peace, they should be " privileged from arrest 
during their attendance at the session of their 
respective houses, and in going to or returning 
from the same ; and for any speech or debate in 
either house " they were not to be " questioned 
in any other place." It was further provided 
thut a territory not exceeding ten miles square 
should be ceded to the United States, and set 
apart as the site of a federal city, in which the 
general government should ever after hold its 
meetings, erect its buildings, and exercise exclu- 
sive jurisdiction. During the past four years 
the Continental Congress had skipped about 
frc m Philadelphia to Princeton, to Annapolis, 
to Trenton, to New York, until it had become 
a laughing-stock, and the newspapers were full 
oJ squibs about it. Verily, said one facetious 
editor, the Lord shall make this government 
/ike unto a wheel, and keep it rolling back and 
fcTth betwixt Dan and Beersheba, and grant it 
n J rest this side of Jordan. This inconvenience 
W3.S now to be remedied. Congress was here- 
af t^er to have a federal police force at its dis- 
321 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

posal, and was never more to be reduced to the 
humiliation of a fruitless appeal to the protecting 
arm of a state government, as at Philadelphia in 
the summer of 1783. Furthermore, the Con- 
tinental Congress had of late years commanded 
so little respect, and had offered so few tempta- 
tions to able men in quest of political distinc- 
tion, that its meetings were often attended by 
no more than eight or ten members. It was 
actually on the point of dying a natural death 
through sheer lack of public interest in it. To 
prevent any possible continuance of such a dis- 
graceful state of things, it was agreed that the 
Federal Congress should be " authorized to 
compel the attendance of absent members, in 
such manner and under such penalties as each 
house may provide." Had the political life of 
the country continued to go on as under the 
Confederation, it is very doubtful whether such 
a provision as this would have remedied the 
evil. But the new Federal Congress, drawing 
its life directly from the people, w^as destined 
to afford far greater opportunities for a political 
career than were afforded by the feeble body 
of delegates which preceded it ; and a penal 
clause, compelling members to attend its m.eet- 
ings, was hardly needed under the new circum- 
stances which arose. 

While the powers of the federal government 
were thus carefully defined, at the same time 
322 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

several powers were expressly denied to the 
states. No state was allowed, without exphcit 
authority from Congress, to lay any tonnage or 
custom-house duties, " keep troops p^^^^^ 
or ships of war in time of peace, en- denied to 

1 '- the states 

ter into any agreement or compact 
with another state or with a foreign power, or 
engage in war unless actually invaded, or in 
such imminent danger as will not admit of de- 
lays." The following clause provided against a 
recurrence of some of the worst evils which 
had been felt under the " league of friendship : " 
" No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, 
or confederation ; grant letters of marque and 
reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of credit; make 
anything but gold and silver coin a tender in 
payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, 
ex post facto law, or law impairing the obliga- 
tion of contracts ; or grant any title of nobility." 
Henceforth there was to be no repetition of 
such disgraceful scenes as had lately been wit- 
nessed in Rhode Island. So far as the state 
legislatures were concerned, paper money was 
to be ruled out forever. But how was it with 
the federal government ? By the articles of 
confederation the United States were allowed 
to issue bills of credit, and make them a tender 
in paym.ent of debts. In the Federal Conven- 
tion the committee of detail suggested that this 
permission might remain under the new consti- 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

tution ; but the suggestion was almost unani- 
mously condemned. All the ablest men in the 
convention spoke very emphatically against it. 
Gouverneur Morris urged that the federal gov- 
Emphatic ernment, no less than the state gov- 
nadonTf ernments, should be expressly pro- 
paper money hibitcd from issuino; bills of credit, 
or in any wise making its promissory notes a 
legal tender. He went over the history of the 
past ten years ; he called attention to the obsti- 
nacy with which the wretched device had been 
resorted to again and again, after its evils had 
been thrust before everybody's eves ; and he 
proved himself a true prophet when he said 
that if the United States should ever again 
have a great war to conduct, people would have 
forgotten all about these things, and would call 
for fresh issues of inconvertible paper, with 
similar disastrous results. Now was the time 
to stop it once for all. " Yes," echoed Roger 
Sherman, " this is the favourable crisis for crush- 
ing paper money." " This is the timic," said 
his colleague, Ellsworth, " to shut and bar the 
door against paper money, which can in no 
case be necessary. Give the government credit, 
and other resources will offer. The power may 
do harm, never good." There was no way, he 
added, in which powerful friends could so soon 
be gained for the new constitution as by vyith- 
holding tnis power from the government. James 
3-4 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

Wilson took the same view. " It will have the 
most salutary influence on the credit of the 
United States," said he, " to remove the possi- 
bility of paper money." " Rather than grant 
the power to Congress," said John Langdon, 
" I would reject the whole plan." " The words 
which grant this power," said George Read of 
Delaware, "if not struck out, will be as alarm- 
ing as the mark of the Beast in the Apocalypse." 
On none of the subjects that came up for dis- 
cussion during that summer was the convention 
more nearly unanimous than in its condemna- 
tion of paper money. The only delegate who 
ventured to speak in its favour was Mercer of 
Maryland. What Hamilton would have said, 
if he had been present that day, we mav judge 
from his vigorous words published some time 
before. The power to emit an inconvertible 
paper as a sign of value ought never hereafter 
to be used ; for in its very nature, said he, it is 
" pregnant with abuses, and liable to be made 
the engine of imposition and fraud, holding out 
temptations equally pernicious to the integrity 
of government and to the morals of the peo- 
ple." Paterson called it " sanctifying iniquity 
by law." The same views were entertained by 
Washington and Madison. There were a few 
delegates, however, who thought it unsafe to 
fetter Congress absolutely. To use Luther 
Martin's expression, they did not set them- 
3^S 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

selves up to be " wise beyond every event." 
George Mason said he " had a mortal hatred 
to paper money, yet, as he could not foresee 
all emergencies, he was unwilling to tie the 
hands of the legislature. The late war," he 
thought, " could not have been carried on had 
such a prohibition existed." Randolph spoke 
to the same effect. Such opinions were com- 
mon then, and are common now; though to 
any one who has carefully studied our financial 
history it is quite clear that both in the War 
of Independence and in the War of Secession 
legal-tender notes were not a help but a most 
baneful encumbrance. 

It was finally decided, by the vote of nine 
states against New Jersey and Maryland, that 
the power to issue inconvertible paper should 
not be granted to the federal government. An 
express prohibition, such as had been adopted 
for the separate states, was thought unnecessary. 
It was supposed that it was enough to with- 
hold the power, since the federal government 
would not venture to exercise it unless expressly 
permitted in the Constitution. " Thus," says 
Madison, in his narrative of the proceedings, 
" the pretext for a paper currency, and particu- 
larly for making the bills a tender, either for 
public or private debts, w^as cut off." Nothing 
could be more clearly expressed than this. As 
Mr, Justice Field observes, in his able dissent- 

3^6 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

ing opinion in the recent case of Juilliard vs, 
Greenman, " if there be anything in the history 
of the Constitution which can be estabHshed 
with moral certainty, it is that the framers of 
that instrument intended to prohibit the issue 
of legal-tender notes both by the general gov- 
ernment and by the states, and thus prevent 
interference with the contracts of private par- 
ties." Such has been the opinion of our ablest 
constitutional jurists, Marshall, Webster, Story, 
Curtis, and Nelson. There can be little doubt 
that, according to all sound principles of inter- 
pretation, the Legal Tender Act of 1862 was 
passed in flagrant violation of the Constitution. 
Could Ellsworth and Morris, Langdon and 
Madison, have foreseen the possibih'tv of such 
extraordinary judgments as have lately ema- 
nated from the Supreme Court of the United 
States, they would doubtless have insisted upon 
the express prohibition, instead of leaving it to 
posterity to root out the plague, as it will ap- 
parently some time have to do, by the cum- 
brous process of an amendment to the Consti- 
tution. 

The work of the convention, as thus far con- 
sidered, related to the legislative department of 
the new government. While these discussions 
were going on, much attention had been paid, 
from time to time, to the characteristics of the 
proposed federal executive. The debates on this 
327 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

question, though long kept up, were far less 
acrimonious than the debates on representation 
and the power of Congress over trade, because 
here there was no obvious clashing of local in- 
terests. But for this very reason the conven- 
tion had no longer so clear a chart to steer by. 
On the question of the slave-trade, the Pinck- 
neys knew accurately just what South Carolina 
wanted, how much it would do to claim, and 
how far it would be necessary to yield. As to 
the regulation of commerce by a bare major- 
ity of votes in Congress, King and Sherman on 
the one hand. Mason and Randolph on the 
other, were able to pursue a thoroughly definite 
course of action in behalf of what were sup- 
posed to be the special interests of New Eng- 
land or of Virginia. Consequently, the debates 
kept close to the point ; the controversy was 
always keen, and sometimes, as we have seen, 
angry. 

It was very different with the question as to 
the federal executive. Upon this point the dis- 
cussions were guided rather by gen- 
Debates as to ^ & y D 

the federal eral spcculatlons as to what would be 
most likely to work well, and accord- 
ingly they wandered far and wide. Some of the 
delegates seemed to think we should sooner or 
later come to adopt a hereditary monarchy, and 
that the chief thing to be done was to postpone 
the event as long as possible. Many wild ideas 
328 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

were broached : such, for example, as a triple- 
headed executive, to represent the eastern, mid- 
dle, and southern states, somewhat as associated 
Roman emperors at times administered affairs 
in the different portions of an undivided em- 
pire. The Virginia plan had not stated whether 
its proposed executive was to be single or plural, 
because the Virginia delegates could not agree. 
Madison wished it to be single, to insure greater 
efficiency, but to Randolph and Mason a tyr- 
anny seemed to lurk in such an arrangement. 
When James Wilson and Charles Pinckney sug- 
gested that the executive power should be in- 
trusted into the hands of one man, a profound 
silence fell upon the convention. No one spoke 
for several minutes, until Washington, from 
the chair, asked if he should put the question. 
Franklin then got up, and said it was an inter- 
esting subject, and he should like to hear what 
the members had to say ; and so the ball was 
set rolling. Rutledge said there was no need 
of their being so shy. A man might frankly ex- 
press his opinions, and afterwards change them 
if he saw good reason for so doing. For his 
part, he was in favour of vesting the executive 
power in a single person, to secure efficiency 
of administration and concentration of respon- 
sibility ; but he would not give him the power 
to declare war and make peace. Sherman then 
made the far-reaching suggestion, that the ex- 

329 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

ecutive magistracy was really " nothing more 
than an institution for carrying the will of the 
legislature into effect ; that the person or per- 
sons ought to be appointed by and account- 
able to the legislature only, which was the de- 
pository of the supreme will of the society. As 
they were the best judges of the business which 
ought to be done by the executive department, 
. . . he wished the number might not be fixed, 
but that the legislature should be at liberty to 
appoint one or more, as experience might dic- 
tate." It would greatly have astonished the con- 
vention had they been told that this suggestion 
of Sherman's was a move in the very same line 
of development which the British government 
had been following for more than half a cen- 
tury ; yet such, as we shall presently see, was 
the case. Had this point been understood then 
as we understand it now, the proceedings of the 
convention could not have failed to be pro- 
foundly affected by it. As it was, the suggestion 
did not receive due attention, and the stream 
of discussion was turned into a very different 
channel. Wilson argued powerfully in favour 
of a single chief magistrate, and this view finally 
prevailed. 

After it had been decided that there should 
be one man set in so high a position, there was 
endless discussion as to whether he should be 
elected by the people or by Congress, and 

330 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

whether he should serve for one, or two, or three, 
or four, or ten, or fifteen years. " Better call it 
twenty," said Rufus King, sarcastically ; " it is 
the average reign of princes.'' Ham- There should 
ikon and Gouverneur Morris would beapresi- 
have had him chosen for life, subject how' should 
to removal for misbehaviour ; but ^^ ^^ ^^""^^^^ 
the preference for a short term of service was 
soon manifest. As to the method of election, 
opinions oscillated back and forth for several 
weeks. Wilson said " he was almost unwilling 
to declare the mode which he Vv^ished to take 
place, being apprehensive that it might appear 
chimerical. He would say, however, at least, 
that in theory he was for an election by the 
people. Experience, particularly in New York 
and Massachusetts, showed that an election of 
the first magistrate by the people at large was 
both a convenient and a successful mode. The 
objects of choice in such cases must be persons 
whose merits have general notoriety." Mason, 
Rutledge, and Strong agreed with Sherman that 
the executive should be chosen by the legis- 
lature ; but Washington, Madison, Gerry, and 
Gouverneur Morris strongly disapproved of 
this. Morris argued that an election by the na- 
tional legislature would be the work of intrigue 
and corruption, like the election of the king 
of Poland by a diet of nobles ; but Mason de- 
clared, on the other hand, that ^' to refer the 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

choice of a proper character for a chief magis- 
trate to the people would be as unnatural as 
to refer a trial of colours to a blind man." A 
decision was first reached against an election 
by Congress, because it was thought that if 
the chief magistrate should prove himself thor- 
oughly competent he ought to be reeligible ; 
but if reehgible he would be exposed to the 
temptation of truckhng to the most powerful 
party or cabal in Congress, in order to secure 
his reelection. It did not occur to any one to 
suggest that under ordinary circumstances the 
executive ought to follow the policy of the most 
powerful party in Congress, and that he might 
at the same time preserve all needful independ- 
ence by being clothed with the power of dis- 
solving Congress and making an appeal to the 
people in a new election. It is interesting to 
consider what might have come of such a sug- 
gestion, following upon the heels of that made 
by Roger Sherman. As we shall presently see, 
it might have gone far toward assimilating the 
machinery of our government to that of Great 
Britain by making the executive the arm of the 
legislature, instead of a separate and coordinate 
power. Upon this point the minds of nearly 
all the members were so far under the sway of 
an incorrect theory of the British constitution 
that such an idea occurred to none of them. It 
was decided that the chief magistrate ought to 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

be reeliglble, and therefore should not be elected 
by Congress. 

An immediate choice by the people, however, 
did not meet with general favour. To obviate 
the difficulty, Ellsworth and King suggested the 
device of an electoral college, in which ^ 

•^ Suggestion 

the electors should be chosen by the ofaneiec- 
state legislatures, and should hold a '""^ ^"^ ''^^ 
meeting at the federal city for the sole purpose 
of deciding upon a chief magistrate. It was then 
objected that it would be difficult ro find com- 
petent men who would be willing to undertake 
a long journey simply for such a purpose. The 
objection was felt to be a very grave one, and 
so the convention returned to the plan of an 
election by Congress, and again confronted the 
difficulty of the chief magistrate's intriguing to 
secure his reelection. Wilson thought to do 
away with this difficulty by introducing the ele- 
ment of blind chance, as in some of the states 
of ancient Greece, and choosing the executive 
by a board of electors taken from Congress by 
lot ; but the suggestion found little support. 
Dickinson thought it would be well if the people 
of each state were to choose its best citizen, — 
in modern parlance, its "favourite son;" then 
out of these thirteen names a chief magistrate 
might be chosen, either by Congress or bv a 
special board of electors. At length, on the 26th 
of July, at the motion of Mason, the convea- 

333 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

tion resolved that there should be a national 
executive, to consist of a single person, to be 
chosen by the national legislature for the term 
of seven years, and to be ineligible for a sec- 
ond term. He was to be styled President of 
the United States of America. 

This decision remained until the very end of 
August, when the whole question was reopened 
by a motion of Rutledge that the two houses of 
Congress, in electing the president, should pro- 
ceed by "joint ballot." The object of this mo- 
tion was to prevent either house from exerting a 
negative on the choice of the other. 1 1 was carried 
in spite of the opposition of some of the smaller 
states, which might hope to exercise a greater 
relative influence upon the choice of presidents, 
if the Senate were to vote separately. At this 
point the fears of Gouverneur Morris, that an 
election by Congress would result in boundless 
intrigue, were revived ; and in a powerful speech 
he persuaded the convention to return to the 
device of the electoral college, which might be 
made equal in number and similar in composi- 
tion to the two houses of Congress sitting to- 
gether. It need not be required of the electors, 
after all, that they should make a long journey 
to the seat of the federal governmjent. They 
might meet in their respective states, and vote 
by^ ballot for two persons, one of whom must 
be an inhabitant of a different state. By this 
334 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

provision it was hoped to diminish the chances 
for extreme sectional partiality. A list of these 
votes might be sent under seal to the presiding 
officer of the Senate, to be counted. Should no 
candidate turn out to have a majority of the 
votes, the Senate might choose a president from 
the five highest candidates on the list. The 
candidate having the next highest number of 
votes might be declared vice-president, and pre- 
serve the visible continuity of the government 
in case of the death of the president during his 
term of office. By these changes the method of 
electing the president, as finally decided upon, 
was nearly completed. But Mason, Randolph, 
Gerry, King, and Wilson, were not satisfied 
with the provision that the Senate might choose 
the president in case of a failure of choice on 
the part of the electoral college : they preferred 
to give this power to the House of Represent- 
atives. It was thought that the Senate would 
be likely to prove an aristocratic body, some- 
what removed from the people in its sympa- 
thies, and there was a dread of intrusting to it 
too many important functions. Mason thought 
that the sway of an aristocracy w^ould be worse 
than an absolute monarchy; and if the Senate 
might every now and then elect the president, 
there would be a risk that the dignitv of his 
office might degenerate, until he should become 
a mere creature of the Senate. On the other 
33S 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

hand, the small states, in order to have an equal 
voice with the large ones, in such an emergency 
as the failure of choice by the electoral college, 
wished to keep the eventual choice in the hands 
of the Senate. Among the delegates from the 
small states, only Langdon and Dickinson at 
first supported the change, and only New 
Hampshire voted for it. At length Sherman 
proposed a compromise, which was carried. It 
was agreed that the eventual choice should be 
given to the House of Representatives, and not 
to the Senate, but that in exercising this func- 
tion the vote in the House of Representatives 
should be taken by states. Thus the humours 
of the delegates from the small states, and of 
those who dreaded the accumulation of powers 
into the hands of an oligarchy, were alike grati- 
fied. This arrangement was finally adopted by 
the votes of ten states against Delaware. 

But in spite of all the minute and anxious 
care that was taken in guarding this point, the 
contingency of an election being thus thrown 
into the hands of the national legislature was 
not regarded as likely often to occur. In point 
of fact, it has hitherto happened only twice in 
the century, in the elections of 1800 and of 
1824. It was recognized that the work would 
ordinarily be done through the machinery of 
the electoral college, and that thus the fear of 
intrigue between the president and Congress, 

23^ 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

as It had originally been felt by the convention, 
might be set aside. To make assurance doubly 
sure, it was provided that " no person shall be 
appointed an elector who is a member of the 
legislature of the United States, or who holds 
any office of profit or trust under the United 
States." It then appeared that the arguments 
which had been alleged against the eligibility of 
the president for a second term had lost their 
force ; and he was accordingly made reeligible, 
while his term of service was reduced from seven 
years to four. 

The scheme had thus arrived substantially at 
its present shape, except that the counting of 
the electoral vote still remained in the hands of 
the Senate. On the 6th of September this pro- 
vision was altered, and it was decided that " the 
president of the Senate shall, in the presence of 
the Senate and the House of Repre- ^^^^^ 
sentatives, open all the certificates, and count the 

- ^ , votes 

the votes shall then be counted." The 
object of this provision was to take the office 
of counting away from the Senate alone, and 
give it to Congress as a whole ; and while doing 
so, to guard against the failure of an election 
through the disagreement of the two houses. 
The method of counting was not prescribed, for 
it was thought that it might safely be left to joint 
rules established by the two houses of Congress 
themselves, after analogies supplied by the expe- 
337 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

rience of the several state legislatures. The case 
of double returns, sent in by rival governments 
in the same state, was not contemplated by the 
coi^ivention ; and thus the door was left open 
for a danger considerably greater than many of 
those over which the delegates were agitated. It 
may safely be said, however, that not even the 
wildest license of interpretation can find any 
support for the ridiculous doctrine suggested 
by some persons blinded by political passion in 
1877, that the business of counting the votes 
and deciding upon the validity of returns be- 
longs to the president of the Senate. No such 
idea was for a moment entertained by the con- 
vention. Any such idea is completely negatived 
by their action of the 6th of September. The 
express purpose of the final arrangement made 
on that day was to admit the House of Repre- 
sentatives to active participation in the office of 
determining who should have been elected presi- 
dent. It was expressly declared that this work 
was too important to be left to the Senate alone. 
What, then, would the convention have said to 
the preposterous notion that this work might 
safely be left to the presiding officer of the 
Senate? The convention were keenly alive to 
any imaginable grant of authority that might 
enable the Senate to grow into an oligarchy. 
What would they have said to the proposal to 
create a monocrat ad hoc^ an official permanently 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

endowed by virtue of his office with the func- 
tion of kinCT-maker ? 

In this connection it is worth our while to 
observe that in no respect has the actual work- 
ing of the Constitution departed so far from the 
intentions of its framers as in the case of their 
provisions concerning the executive. Against a 
host of possible dangers they guarded most 
elaborately, but the dangers and in- The con- 
conveniences against which we have y^"^'°" 

'-' ^ roresaw 

actually had to contend they did not imaginary 
foresee. It will be observed that but^nTt'the 
Wilson's proposal for a direct elec- real ones 
tion of the president by the people found little 
favour in the convention. The schemes that 
were seriously considered oscillated back and 
forth between an election by the national legis- 
lature and an election by a special college of 
electors. The electors might be chosen by a 
popular vote, or by the state legislatures, or in 
any such wise as each state might see fit to de- 
termine for itself In point of fact, electors 
were chosen by the legislature in New Jersey 
till 1816; in Connecticut till 1820; in New 
York, Delaware, and Vermont, and with one 
exception in Georgia, till 1824 ; in South Caro- 
lina till 1868. Massachusetts adopted various 
plans, and did not finally settle down to an 
election by the people until 1828. Now there 
were several reasons why the Federal Conven- 
339 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

tion was afraid to trust the choice of the presi- 
dent directly to the people. One was that very 
old objection, the fear of the machinations of 
demagogues, since people were supposed to be 
so easily fooled. As already observed, the de- 
mocratic sentiment in the convention was such 
as we should now call weak. Another reason 
shows vividly how wide the world seemed in 
those days of slow coaches and mail-bags car- 
ried on horseback. It was feared that people 
would not have sufficient data wherewith to 
judge of the merits of public men in states re- 
mote from their own. The electors, as eminent 
men exceptionally well Informed, might hold 
little conventions and select the best possible 
candidates, using In every case their own unfet- 
tered judgment. 

In this connection the words of Hamilton 
are worth quoting. In the sixty-eighth num- 
ber of the " Federalist" he says: " The mode 
of appointment of the chief magistrate of the 
United States Is almost the only part of the 
system which has escaped without severe cen- 
sure, or which has received the slightest mark 
of approbation from Its opponents. The most 
plausible of these who has appeared In print 
has even deigned to admit that the election of 
the president Is well guarded. ... It was de- 
sirable that the sense of the people should 
operate in the choice of the person to whom so 
340 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

important a trust was to be confided. ... It 
was equally desirable that the immediate elec- 
tion should be made by men capable of analyz- 
ing the qualities adapted to the station, and 
actiiig under circumstances favourable to delib- 
eration and to a judicious combination of all 
the reasons and inducements that were proper 
to govern their choice. A small number of 
persons, selected by their fellow citizens from 
the general mass, will be most likely to possess 
the information and discernment requisite to so 
complicated an investigation. ... It was also 
peculiarly desirable to afford as little opportun- 
ity as possible to tumult and disorder. This 
evil was not least to be dreaded in the elec- 
tion of a magistrate who was to have so impor- 
tant an agency in the administration of the 
government." 

Such was the theory as set forth by a thinker 
endowed with rare ability to follow out in im- 
agination the results of any course of political 
action. It is needless to say that the actual 
working of the scheme has been very different 
from what was expected. In our very first great 
struggle of parties, in 1800, the elect- Actual 
ors divided upon party lines, with working 
little heed to the " complicated inves- decJrai 
tigation " for which they were sup- ''^""^ 
posed to be chosen. Quite naturally, for the 
work of electing a candidate presupposes a state 
341 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

of mind very different from that of serene de- 
liberation. In 1800 the electors acted simply as 
automata recording the victory of their party, 
and so it has been ever since. In our own time 
presidents and vice-presidents are nominated, 
not without elaborate intrigue, by special con- 
ventions quite unknown to the Constitution ; 
the people cast their votes for the two or three 
pairs of candidates thus presented, and the elect- 
oral college simply registers the results. The 
system is thus fully exposed to all the dangers 
which our forefathers dreaded from the frequent 
election of a chief magistrate by the people. 
Owing to the great good-sense and good-nature 
of the American people, the system does not 
work so badly as might be expected. It has, in- 
deed, worked immeasurably better than any one 
would have ventured to predict. It is never- 
theless open to grave objections. It compels a 
change of administration at stated astronomical 
periods, whether any change of policy is called 
for or not ; it stirs up the whole country every 
fourth year with a furious excitement that is 
often largely factitious ; and twice within the 
century, in 1801 and again in 1877, it has 
brought us to the verge of the most focdish and 
hopeless species of civil war, in view of that 
thoroughly monarchical kind of accident, a dis- 
puted succession.^ 

^ Since this was written, this last and most serious danger 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

The most curious and instructive point con- 
cerning the pecuHar executive devised for the 
United States by the Federal Convention is the 
fact that the delegates proceeded upon a thor- 
oughly false theory of what they were doing. 
As already observed, in this part of its discus- 
sions the convention had not the clearly out- 
lined chart of local interests to steer by. It 
indulged in general speculations and looked 
about for precedents ; and there was one prece- 
dent which American statesmen then alwa)s 
had before their eyes, whether they were dis- 
tinctly aware of it or not. In creating an ex- 
ecutive department, the members of the con- 
vention were really trying to copy the only 
constitution of which they had any direct ex- 
perience, and which most of them agreed in 
thinking the most efficient working constitution 
in existence, — as indeed it was. They were try- 
ing to copy the British Constitution, 

^ j-r ' • • 1 • 11- Theconven- 

moditymg it to suit their republican tion supposed 
ideas; but curiously enough, what ttyilltrn 
they copied in creating the office of the British 

' ' ^ 1 1 T--- 1 • 1 Constitution 

president was not the real linglish ex- 
ecutive or prime minister, but the fictitious Eng- 
lish executive, the sovereign. And this was as- 
sociated in their minds with another profound 

would seem to have been removed by the acts of i886 and 
1887 regulating the presidential succession and the counting 
of electoral votes. 

343 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

misconception, which influenced all this part of 
their work. They thought that to keep the 
legislative and executive offices distinct and 
separate was the very palladium of liberty ; and 
they all took it for granted, without a moment's 
question, that the British Constitution did this 
thing. England, they thought, is governed by 
King, Lords, and Commons, and the supreme 
power is nicely divided between the three, so 
that neither one can get the whole of it, and 
that is the safeguard of English liberty. So they 
arranged President, Senate, and Representatives 
to correspond, and sedulously sought to divide 
supreme power between the three, so that they 
might operate as checks upon one another. If 
either one should ever succeed in acquiring the 
whole sovereignty, then they thought there 
would be an end of American liberty. 

Now in the earlier part of the work of the 
Federal Convention, in dealing with the legis- 
lative department, the delegates were on firm 
ground, because they were dealing with things 
of which they knew something by experience; 
but in all this careful separation of the executive 
power from the legislative they went wide of 
the mark, because they were following a theory 
which did not truly describe things as they really 
existed. And that was because the English Con- 
stitution was, and still is, covered up with a 
thick husk of legal fictions which long ago ceased 
344 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

to have any vitality. Blackstone, the great au- 
thority of the eighteenth century, set forth this 
theory of the division of power between King, 
Lords, and Commons with clearness and force, 
and nobody then understood F.nglish history 
minutely or thoroughly enough to see its fal- 
laciousness. Montesquieu also, the ablest and 
most elegant political writer of the age, influence of 
with whose works most of the states- anrmlck-" 
men in the Federal Convention were stone 
familiar, gave a similar description of the Eng- 
lish Constitution, and generalized from it as the 
ideal constitution for a free people. But Mon- 
tesquieu and Blackstone, in their treatment of 
this point, had their eyes upon the legal fictions, 
and were blind to the real machinery which w^as 
working under them. They gave elegant ex- 
pression to what the late Mr. Bagehot called 
the "literary theory" of the English Constitu- 
tion. But the real thing differed essentially from 
the " literary theory " even in their day. In our 
own time the divergence has become so con- 
spicuous that it would not now be possible for 
well-informed writers to make the mistake of 
Montesquieu and Blackstone. In our time it 
has come to be perfectly obvious that so far 
from the English Constitution separating the 
executive power from the legislative, this is pre- 
cisely what it does not do. In Great Britain the 
supreme power is all lodged in a single body, 
345 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

the House of Commons. The sovereign has 
come to be purely a legal fiction, and the House 
of Lords maintains itself only by submitting to 
the Commons. The House of Commons is 
absolutely supreme, and, as we shall presently 
see, it really both appoints and dismisses the 
executive. The English executive, or chief 
magistrate, is ordinarily the first lord of the trea- 
sury, and is commonly styled the prime minister. 
He is chairman of the most important com- 
mittee of the House of Commons, and his 
cabinet consists of the chairmen of other com- 
mittees. 

To make this perfectly clear, let us see what 
our machinery of government would be if it 
were really like the English. The presence or 
absence of the crowned head makes no essential 
difference ; it is only a kind of ornamental 
cupola. Suppose for a moment the presidency 
abolished, or reduced to the political nullity 
of the crown in England ; and post- 

What our ^, . . ^ . 

government ponc for R momcnt the consideration 
rii^tediy '' of the Senate. Suppose that in our 
like that of House of Representatives the com- 

Great Britain . r ^ i i 

mittee or ways and means had two 
chairmen, — an upper chairman who looks after 
all sorts of business, and a lower chairman who 
attends especially to the finances. This upper 
chairman, we will say, corresponds to the first 
lord of the treasury, while the lower one corre- 
346 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

spends to the chancellor of the exchequer. Some- 
times, when the upper chairman is a great .finan- 
cier, and capable of enormous labour, he will 
fill both places at once, as Mr. Gladstone was 
lately first lord of the treasury and chancellor 
of the exchequer. The chairman of the other 
committees on foreign, military, and naval af- 
fairs will answer to the English secretaries of 
state for foreign affairs and for war, the first lord 
of the admiralty, and so on. This group of 
chairmen, headed by the upper chairman of the 
ways and means, will then answer to the Eng- 
lish cabinet, with its prime minister. To com- 
plete the parallel, let us suppose that, after a 
new House of Representatives is elected, it 
chooses this prime minister, and he appoints 
the other chairmen who are to make up his 
cabinet. Suppose, too, that he initiates all legis- 
lation, and executes all laws, and stays in of- 
fice three weeks or thirty years, or as long as he 
can get a majority of the house to vote for his 
measures. If he loses his majority, he can either 
resign, or dissolve the house and order a new 
election, thus appealing directly to the people. 
If the new house gives him a majority, he stays 
in office ; if it shows a majority against him, he 
steps down into the house, and becomes, per- 
haps, the leader of the opposition. 

Now if this were the form of our govern- 
ment, it would correspond in all essential fea- 
347 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

tures to that of England. The Hkeness is 
hable to be obscured by the fact that in Eng- 
land it is the queen who is supposed to appoint 
the prime minister; but that is simply a part 
of the antiquated " literary theory " of the 
English Constitution. In reality the queen 
only acts as mistress of the ceremonies. What- 
ever she may wish, the prime minister must be 
the man who can command the best working 
majority in the house. This is not only tested 
by the first vote that is taken, but it is almost 
invariably known beforehand so w^ell that if the 
queen offers the place to the wrong man he re- 
fuses to take it. Should he be so foolish as to 
take it, he is sure to be overthrown at the first 
test vote, and then the right man comes in. 
Thus in 1880 the queen's manifest preference 
for Lord Granville or Lord Hartington made 
no sort of difference. Mr. Gladstone was as 
much chosen by the House of Commons as if 
the members had sat in their seats and balloted 
for him. If the crown were to be abolished to- 
morrow, and the house were henceforth, on the 
resignation of a prime minister, to elect a new 
one to serve as long as he could command a 
majority, it would not be doing essentially 
otherwise than it does now. The house then 
dismisses its minister when it rejects one cf his 
important measures. But while thus appointed 
and dismissed by the house, he is in no wise 

348 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

Its slave ; for by the power of dissolution he 
has the right to appeal to the country, and let 
the general election decide the issue. The obvi- 
ous advantages of this system are that it makes 
anything like a deadlock between the legislature 
and the executive impossible ; and it insures a 
concentration of responsibility. The prime min- 
ister's bills cannot be disregarded, like the presi- 
dent's messages ; and thus, too, the house is 
kept in hand, and cannot degenerate into a 
debating club/ 

A system so delicate and subtle, yet so strong 
and efficient, as this could no more have been 
invented by the wisest of statesmen than a 
chemist could make albumen by taking its ele- 
ments and mixing them together. In its practi- 
cal working it is a much simpler svstem than 
ours, and still its principal features are not such 
as would be likely to occur to men who had not 
had some actual experience of them, in the British 
It is the peculiar outg-rowth of Eng- g^^^rnment, 

r o p the executive 

lish history^. As we can now see, its department is 
chief characteristic is its not separating from^the'"^^^ 
the executive power from the legisla- legislative 
tive. As a member of Parliament, the prime 

1 The history of President Cleveland's tariff message of 
1887, however, shovv^s that, where a wise and courageous 
president calls attention to a living issue, his party, alike in 
Congress and in the country, is in a measure compelled to 
follow his lead. 

349 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

minister introduces the legislation which he is 
himself expected to carry into effect. Nor does 
the English system even keep the judiciary 
entirely separate, for the lord chancellor not 
only presides over the House of Lords, but 
sits in the cabinet as the prime minister's legal 
adviser. It is somewhat as if the chief justice 
of the United States were ex officio president of 
the Senate and attorney-general ; though here 
the resemblance is somewhat superficial. Our 
Senate, although it does not represent landed 
aristocracy or the church, but the federal char- 
acter of our government, has still a superficial 
resemblance to the House of Lords. It passes 
on all bills that come up from the lower house, 
and can originate bills on most matters, but not 
for raising revenue. Its function as a high court 
of impeachment, with the chief justice for its 
presiding officer, was directly copied from the 
House of Lords. But here the resemblance 
ends. The House of Lords has no such veto 
upon the House of Commons as our Senate 
has upon the House of Representatives. Be- 
tween our upper and lower houses a serious 
deadlock is possible; but the House of Lords 
can only reject a bill until it sees that the House 
of Commons is determined to have it carried. 
It can only enter a protest. If it is obstinate 
and tries to do more, the House of Commons, 
through its prime minister, can create enough 

3S^ 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

new peers to change the vote, — a power so 
formidable in its effects upon the social position 
of the peerage that it does not need to be used. 
The knowledge that it exists is usually enough 
to bring the House of Lords to terms.^ 

These features of the English Constitution 
are so prominent since the reform of Parliament 
in 1832 as to be generally recognized. They 
have been gradually becoming its essential fea- 
tures ever since the Revolution of circum- 
1688. Before that time the crown '^t"T l 

which ob- 

had really been the executive, and scured the 
there had really been a separation oAhrcSea 
between the executive and legislative century ago 
branches of the government, which on several 
occasions, and notably in the middle of the 
seventeenth century, had led to armed strife. 
What the Revolution of 1688 really decided 
was that henceforth in England the executive 
was to be the mighty arm of the legislature, 
and not a separate and rival power. It ended 
whatever of reality there was in the old system 
of King, Lords, and Commons, and by the time 
of Sir Robert Walpole the system of cabinet 
government had become fairly established ; but 

1 Where, however, the majority in the House of Lords 
is so great as to approach unanimity, as in opposition to Home 
Rule for Ireland, it does operate as a check upon the House 
of Commons, because the cure mentioned in the text would 
De too violent. 

351 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

men still continued to use the phrases and for- 
mulas bequeathed from former ages, so that the 
meaning of the changes going on under their 
very eyes was obscured. There was also a great 
historical incident, after Walpole's time, which 
served further to obscure the meaning of these 
changes, especially to Americans. From 1760 
to 1784, by means of the rotten borough sys- 
tem of elections and the peculiar attitude of 
political parties, the king contrived to make 
his will felt in the House of Commons to such 
an extent that it became possible to speak of 
the personal government of George III. The 
work of the Revolution of 1688 was not really 
completed till the election of 1784, which made 
Pitt the ruler of England, and its fruits cannot 
be said to have been fully secured till 1832. 
Now as our Revolutionary War was brought 
on by the attempts of George III. to establish 
his personal government, and as it was actually 
he rather than Lord North who ruled England 
during that war, it was not strange that Ameri- 
cans, even of the highest education, should have 
failed to discover the transformation which the 
past century had wrought in the framework of 
the English government. Nay, more, during 
this century the king had seemed even more of 
a real institution to the Americans than to the 
British. He had seemed to them the only link 
which bound the different parts of the empire 
3S'^ 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

together. Throughout the struggles which cul= 
minated in the War of Independence, it had 
been the favourite American theory that while 
the colonial assemblies and the British Parlia- 
ment were sovereign each in its own sphere, all 
alike owed allegiance to the king as visible head 
of the empire. To people who had been in the 
habit of setting forth and defending such a the- 
ory, it was impossible that the crown should 
seem so much a legal fiction as it had really 
come to be in England. It is very instructive 
to note that while the members of the Federal 
Convention thoroughly understood the anti- 
quated theory of the English Constitution as 
set forth by Blackstone, they drew very few illus- 
trations from the modern working of Parliament, 
with which they had not had sufficient opportu- 
nities of becoming familiar. In particular they 
seemed quite unconscious of the vast signifi- 
cance of a dissolution of Parliament, although a 
dissolution had occurred only three years before 
under such circumstances as to work a revolu- 
tion in British politics without a breath of dis- 
turbance. The only sort of dissolution with 
which they were familiar was that in which 
Dunmore or Bernard used to send the colonial 
assemblies home about their business whenever 
they grew too refractory. Had the significance 
of a dissolution, in the British sense, been under- 
stood by the convention, the pregnant sugges- 

353 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

tion of Roger Sherman, above mentioned, could 
not have failed to give a different turn to the 
whole series of debates on the executive branch 
of the government. Had our Constitution been 
framed a few years later, this point would have 
had a better chance of being understood. As it 
was, in trying to modify the English system so 
as to adapt it to our own uses, it was the archaic 
monarchical feature, and not the modern minis- 
terial feature, upon which we seized. The presi- 
dent, in our system, irremovable by the national 
legislature, does not answer to the modern 
prime minister, but to the old-fashioned king, 
with powers for mischief curtailed by election 
for short terms. 

Among the ancient royal powers wielded by 
the American president, perhaps the most im- 
portant is his limited power of veto. An act 
passed by the two houses of Congress is not in 
force until he has signed it, or else has allowed 
ten davs to elapse without expressing his dis- 
approval of it. If he refuse to sign a bill, it re° 
quires a two thirds majority in both houses to 
pass it over his refusal. This gives the presi- 
dent a very considerable check upon the na- 
tional legislature. The English sovereign once 
possessed a veto power without such specific 
limitations, but has long since practically lost it 
altogether. The last use of it was in 1707, 
when Queen Anne vetoed a Scotch militia bill. 
354 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

George III. regarded the veto power as one of 
his prerogatives, but he never ventured so far as 
to exercise it. In our time Mr. Bagehot writes 

o 

that the queen must sign her own death-warrant 
if the two houses agree in sending it up to her.'- 
The American constitution is in this respect es- 
sentially less democratic and more monarchical 
than the British. 

The independence of the executive magis- 
trate, and his prerogative of veto, are a funda- 
mental part of the American svstem of govern- 
ment. The position of the state governors is 
in these respects analogous to that of the pre- 
sident. Probably this system is better adapted 
to the needs of our country than the more demo- 
cratic British system. One of the most serious 
of the dangers which beset democratic govern- 
ment, especially where it is conducted on a great 
scale, is the danger that the majority for the 
time being will use its power tyrannically and 
unscrupulously, as it is always tempted to do. 
Against such unbridled democracy we have 
striven to guard ourselves by various constitu- 
tional checks and balances. Our written consti- 
tutions and our supreme courts are important 
safeguards, and another great safeguard is the 
independence of our executives. But if our ex- 
ecutive departments were mere committees of 

^ Bagehot, The English Constitution, p. 122 ; Taswell- 
Langmead, English Constitutional History, p. 706. 

35S 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

the legislature, like the English Cabinet, this 
independence could not be maintained ; and 
the loss of it would probably entail upon us 
greater evils than those which now flow from 
want of leadership in our legislatures.^ 

In contrasting presidential with cabinet gov- 
ernment, Mr. Bagehot has instructively pointed 
to the evils attending the long antagonism be- 
tween President Johnson and Congress. If 
Johnson's position had been like that of an 
English prime minister, he would have had to 
resign at the beginning of the struggle. As it 
was, his irremovableness goaded Congress to 
such desperation that it tried to make a very 
questionable use of the process of impeachment. 
This example seems to show the superiority of 
the English system. 

A contrary inference, however, is suggested 
by the autumn elections of 1862. There was 
a notable diminution of the Republican vote, 
though not enough to give the Democrats a 
majority in Congress. Supposing the Demo- 
crats to have gained a majority, if Mr. Lincoln 
had been Prime Minister instead of President, 
it would have been necessary for him to re- 

^ In two admirable essays on '' Cabinet Responsibility and 
the Constitution," and *' Democracy and the Constitution," 
Mr. Lawrence Lowell has shown the merits of the American 
system. Lowell, Essays ofi Government^ Boston, 1890, pp. 
ao-i 17. 

356 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

sign. In that critical moment of a great war, 
the bare possibihty of a sudden change of lead- 
ers and policy would have been an evil, and 
the irremovableness of the executive was an 
element of strength on the side of the govern- 
ment. 

The phenomena with which history deals are 
so complicated that one can seldom arrive at 
positive conclusions by citing real or hypotheti- 
cal examples. But there is one respect in which 
daily experience is teaching Americans to set a 
high value upon the independence of the execu- 
tive. That independence, I repeat, is needed as 
a check upon the irresponsible tyranny of the 
legislature. Two centuries ago the legislature 
was needed as a check upon the monarch. 
To-day the tyranny which we have chiefly to 
dread, and under which we chiefly suffer, is the 
tyranny of Demos, "the many-headed king," 
' — and when we are choosing a president or a 
governor one of the most important questions 
we can ask is whether the candidate is clear- 
headed enough and bold enough to protect us 
from the knavery and follv of our representa- 
tives. Such are the vicissitudes of peril through 
which society must pass on its way toward 
that liberty of which eternal vigilance is the 
price ! 

The close parallelism between the office of 
president and that of king in the minds of the 
357 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

framers of the Constitution was instructive!]! 

shown in the debates on the advisableness of 

restraining the president's action by a privy 

council. Gerry and Sherman urged that there 

was need of such a council, in order to keep 

The Ameri watch ovcr thc president. It was sug- 

can cabinet gcstcd that the pHvy council should 

not"o°thr^ consist of " the president of the Sen^ 

British cabi- ^tc, the Speaker of the House of Re- 
net, but to F 

the privy prcscntativcs, the chief justice of the 
supreme court, and the principal offi- 
cer in each of five departments as they shali 
from time to time be established ; their duty 
shall be to advise him in matters which he shall 
lay before them, but their advice shall not con- 
clude him, or affect his responsibility." The 
plan for such a council found favour with Frank- 
lin, Madison, Wilson, Dickinson, and Mason, 
but did not satisfy the convention. When it 
was voted down Mason used strong language. 
" In rejecting a council to the president," said 
he, " we are about to try an experiment on which 
the most despotic government has never ven- 
tured ; the Grand Seignior himself has his Di- 
van." It was this failure to provide a council 
which led the convention to give to the Senate 
a share in some of the executive functions of the 
president, such as the making of treaties, the 
appointment of ambassadors, consuls, judges of 
the supreme court, and other officers of the 
3S8 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

United States whose appointment was not 
otherwise provided for. As it was objected to 
the office of vice-president that he seemed to 
have nothing provided for him to do, he was 
disposed of by making him president of the 
Senate. No cabinet was created by the Consti- 
tution, but since then the heads of various ex- 
ecutive departments, appointed by the presi- 
dent, have come to constitute what is called his 
cabinet. Since, however, the members of it do 
not belong to Congress, and can neither initiate 
nor guide legislation, they really constitute a 
privy council rather than a cabinet in the mod- 
ern sense, thus furnishing another illustration 
of the analogy between the president and the 
archaic sovereign. 

Concerning the structure of the federal judi- 
ciary little need be said here. It was framed with 
very little disagreement among the The federal 
delegates. The work was chiefly done J^^^^^^^y 
in committee by Ellsworth, Wilson, Randolph, 
and Rutledge, and the result did not differ 
essentially from the scheme laid down in the 
Virginia plan. It was indeed the indispensable 
completion of the work which was begun by the 
creation of a national House of Representatives. 
To make a federal government immediately 
operative upon individual citizens, it must of 
course be armed with federal courts to try and 
federal officers to execute judgment in all cases 

359 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

in which individual citizens were amenable to 
the national law. But for this system of United 
States courts extended throughout the states 
and supreme within its own sphere, the federal 
constitution could never have been put into 
practical working order. In another respect the 
federal judiciary was the most remarkable and 
original of all the creations of that wonderful 
convention. It was charged with the duty of 
interpreting, in accordance with the general 
principles of common law, the Federal Constitu- 
tion itself. This is the most noble as it is the 
most distinctive feature in the government of 
the United States. It constitutes a difference 
between the American and British systems more 
fundamental than the separation of the execu- 
tive from the legislative department. In Great 
Britain the unwritten constitution is adminis- 
tered by the omnipotent House of Commons; 
whatever statute is enacted by Parliament must 
stand until some future Parliament may see fit 
to repeal it. But an act passed by both houses 
of Congress, and signed by the president, may 
still be set aside as unconstitutional by the 
supreme court of the United States in its 
judgments upon individual cases brought be- 
fore it. It was thus that the practical working 
of our Federal Constitution during the first 
thirty years of the nineteenth centurv was 
swayed to so great an extent by the profound 
360 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

and luminous decisions of Chief Justice Mar- 
shall, that he must be assigned a foremost place 
among the founders of our Federal Union. 
This intrusting to the judiciary the whole inter- 
pretation of the fundamental instrument of 
government is the most peculiarly American 
feature of the work done by the convention, 
and to the stability of such a federation as ours, 
covering as it does the greater part of a huge 
continent, it was absolutely indispensable. 

Thus, at length, was realized the sublime 
conception of a nation in which every citizen 
lives under two complete and well-rounded 
systems of laws, — the state law and the federal 
law, — each with its legislature, its executive, 
and its judiciary moving one within the other, 
noiselessly and without friction. It was one of 
the longest reaches of constructive statesman- 
ship ever known in the world. There never 
was anything quite like it before, and in Europe 
it needs much explanation to-day even for 
educated statesmen who have never actually 
beheld its workings. Yet to Americans it has 
become so much a matter of course that they, 
too, sometimes need to be told how much it 
signifies. In 1787 it was the substitution of 
law for violence between states that were partly 
sovereign. In some future still grander conven- 
tion we trust the same thing will be done be- 
tween states that have been wholly sovereign, 
361 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

whereby peace may gain and violence be dim- 
inished over other lands than this which has 
set the example. 

Great as was the work which the Federal 
Convention had now accomplished, none of the 
members supposed it to be complete. After 
some discussion, it was decided that Congress 
might at any time, by a two thirds vote in both 
houses, propose amendments to the Constitu- 
tion, or on the application of the legislature of 
two thirds of the states might call a convention 
for proposing amendments ; and such amend- 
ments should become part of the constitution 
as soon as ratified by three fourths of the states, 
either through their legislatures or through 
special conventions summoned for the purpose. 
The design of this elaborate arrangement was 
to guard against hasty or ill-considered changes 
in the fundamental instrument of govern- 
ment — and its effectiveness has been such 
that an amendment has come to be impossible 
save as the result of intense conviction on the 
part of a vast majority of the whole American 
people. 

Finally it was decided that the Federal Con- 
stitution, as now completed, should be presented 
to the Continental Congress, and then referred 
to special conventions in all the states for rati- 
fication ; and that when nine states, or two 
thirds of the whole number, chould have rati- 
362 



THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

fied, it should at once go into operation as 
between such ratifying states. 

When the great document was at last drafted 
by Gouverneur Morris, and was all ready for 
the signatures, the aged Franklin produced a 
paper, which was read for him, as his voice was 
weak. Some parts of this Constitution, he said, 
he did not approve, but he was astonished to 
find it so nearly perfect. Whatever opinion he 
had of its errors he would sacrifice to signing the 
the public good, and he hoped that Constitution 
every member of the convention who still had 
objections would on this occasion doubt a little 
of his own infallibility, and for the sake of una- 
nimity put his name to this instrument. Ham- 
ilton added his plea. A few members, he said, 
by refusing to sign, might do infinite mischief. 
No man's ideas could be more remote from the 
plan than his were known to be ; but was it 
possible for a true patriot to deliberate between 
anarchy and convulsion on the one side, and 
the chance of good to be expected from this 
plan on the other ? From these appeals, as 
well as from Washington's solemn warning at 
the outset, we see how distinctly it was realized 
that the country was on the verge of civil war. 
Most of the members felt so, but to some the 
new government seemed far too strong, and 
there were three who dreaded despotism even 
more than anarchy. Mason, Randolph, and 
3^3 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

Gerry refused to sign, though Randolph sought 
to quaHfy his refusal by explaining that he 
could not yet make up his mind whether to 
oppose or defend the Constitution, when it 
should be laid before the people of Virginia. 
He wished to reserve to himself full liberty of 
action in the matter. That Mason and Gerry, 
valuable as their services had been in the mak- 
ing of the Constitution, would now go home 
and vigorously oppose it, there was no doubt. 
Of the delegates who were present on the last 
day of the convention, all but these three 
signed the Constitution. In the signatures the 
twelve states which had taken part in the work 
were all represented, Hamilton signing alone 
for New York. 

Thus after four months of anxious toil, 
through the whole of a scorching Philadelphia 
summer, after earnest but sometimes bitter dis- 
cussion, in which more than once the meeting 
had seemed on the point of breaking up, a 
colossal work had at last been accomplished, 
the results of which were powerfully to affect 
the whole future career of the human race. In 
spite of the high-wrought intensity of feeling 
which had been now and then displayed, grave 
decorum had ruled the proceedings; and now, 
though few were really satisfied, the approach 
to acquiescent unanimity was remarkable. When 



364 




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THE FEDERAL CONVENTION 

all was over, it is said that many of the members 
seemed awestruck. Washington sat with head 
bowed in solemn meditation. The scene was 
ended by a characteristic bit of homely pleasantry 
from Franklin. Thirty-three years ago, in the 
days of George II., before the first mutterings 
of the Revolution had been heard, and when 
the French dominion in America was still un- 
touched, before the banishment of the Acadians 
or the rout of Braddock, while Washington was 
still surveying lands in the wilderness, while 
Madison was playing in the nursery and Ham- 
ilton was not yet born, Franklin had endeavoured 
to bring together the thirteen colonies in a 
federal union. Of the famous Albany plan of 
1754, the first complete outline of a federal 
constitution for America that ever was made, 
he was the principal if not the sole author. 
When he signed his name to the Declaration 
of Independence ' this very room, his years 
had rounded the tull period of threescore and 
ten. Eleven years more had passed, and he 
had been spared to see the noble aim of his life 
accomplished. There was still, no doubt, a 
chance of failure, but hope now reigned in the 
old man's breast. On the back of the president's 
quaint black armchair there was emblazoned a 
half-sun, brilliant with its gilded rays. As the 
meeting was breaking up and Washington 



3^S 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

arose, Franklin pointed to the chair, and made 
it the text for prophecy. " As I have been sit- 
ting here all these weeks," said he,^ " I^ have 
often wondered whether yonder sun is rising or 
setting. But now I know that it is a rising 
sun 1 " 



3D«? 



VII 

CROWNING THE WORK 

IT was on the 17th of September, 1787, 
that the Federal Convention broke up. 
For most of the delegates there was a long 
and tedious journey home before they could 
meet their fellow citizens and explain what had 
been done at Philadelphia during this anxious 
summer. Not so, however, with Benjamin 
Franklin and the Pennsylvania delegation. At 
eleVen o'clock on the next morning, radiant 
with delight at seeing one of the most cherished 
purposes of his life so nearly accomplished, the 
venerable philosopher, attended by his seven 
colleagues, presented to the legislature of Penn- 
sylvania a copy of the Federal Constitution, 
and in a brief but pithy speech, characterized 
by his usual homely wisdom, begged for it their 
favourable consideration. His words fell upon 
willing ears, for nowhere was the disgust at the 
prevailing anarchy greater than in Philadelphia. 
But still it was not quite in order for the assem- 
bly to act upon the matter until word should 
come from the Continental Congress. Since its 
ignominious flight to Princeton, four years ago, 
367 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

that migratory body had not honoured Phila- 
delphia with its presence. It had once flitted 
as far south as Annapolis, but at length had 
chosen for its abiding-place the city of New 
The new York, whcre it was now in session. 

Constitution '-t^ r^ ^i_ r^ ^' ^ ^' 

is laid before ^ o Longrcss the ncw Constitution 
Congress and niust bc Submitted before it was in 

submitted i r i i i 

forthwith to Order tor the several states to take 
st'teX'^ action upon it. On the 20th of Sep- 
ratification tcmber the draft of the Constitution 
was laid before Congress, accompanied by a 
letter from Washington. The forces of the op- 
position were promptly mustered. At their 
head was Richard Henry Lee, who eleven years 
ago had moved in Congress the Declaration of 
Independence. He was ably supported by 
Nathan Dane of Massachusetts, and the dele- 
gation from New York were unanimous in their 
determination to obstruct any movement toward 
a closer union of the states. Their tactics were 
vigorous, but the majority in Congress were 
against them, especially after the return of 
Madison from Philadelphia. Madison, aided 
by Edward Carrington and young Henry Lee, 
the famous leader of light horse, succeeded in 
every division in carrying the vote of Virginia in 
favour of the Constitution and against the ob- 
structive measures of the elder Lee. The objec- 
tion was first raised that the new Constitution 
would put an end to the Continental Congress, 
368 



CROWNING THE WORK 

and that in recommending it to the states for 
consideration Congress would be virtually ask- 
ing them to terminate its own existence. Was 
it right or proper for Congress thus to have a 
hand in signing its own death-warrant ? But 
this flimsy argument was quickly overturned. 
Seven months before Congress had recognized 
the necessity for calling the convention together ; 
whatever need for its work existed then, there 
was the same need now ; and by refusing to 
take due cognizance of it Congress would sim- 
ply stultify itself The opposition then tried to 
clog the measure by proposing amendments, 
but they were outgeneralled, and after eight 
days' discussion it was voted that the new Con- 
stitution, together with Washington's letter, 
" be transmitted to the several legislatures, in 
order to be submitted to a convention of dele- 
gates in each state by the people thereof, in 
conformity to the resolves of the convention.'* 
The submission of the Constitution to the 
people of the states was the signal for the first 
formation of political parties on a truly national 
issie. During the war there had indeed been 
Whigs and Tories, but their strife had not been 
like the ordinary strife of political parties ; it 
was actual warfare. Irredeemably discredited 
from the outset, the Tories had been overrid- 
den and outlawed from one end of the Union 
to the other. They had never been able to hold 
369 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

up their heads as a party in opposition. Since 
the close of the war there had been local parties 
in the various states, divided on issues of hard 
and soft money, or the impost, or state rights,, 
and these issues had coincided in many of the 
states. During the autumn of 1787 all these 
elements were segregated into two great politi- 
First Amer- ^al parties, whosc character and views 
ican parties, ^re Sufficiently described by their 

Federalists 

and And- namcs. Those who supported the 
federalists ^^^ Constitution wcrc henceforth 
known as Federalists ; those who were opposed 
to strengthening the bond between the states 
were called Antifederalists. It was fit that their 
name should have this merely negative signifi- 
cance, for their policy at this time was purely a 
policy of negation and obstruction. Care must 
be taken not to confound them with the Demo- 
cratic-Republicans, or strict constructionists, 
who appear in opposition to the Federalists 
soon after the adoption of the Constitution. 
The earlier short-lived party furnished a great 
part of its material to the later one, but the at- 
titude of the strict constructionists under the 
Constitution was very different from that of the 
Antifederalists. Madison, the second Repub- 
lican president, was now the most energetic of 
Federalists ; and Jefferson, soon to become the 
founder of the Democratic-Republican party, 
wrote from Paris, saying, " The Constitution is 
370 



CROWNING THE WORK 

a good canvas, on which some strokes only want 
retouching." He found the same fault with it 
that was found by many of the ablest and most 
patriotic men in the country, — that it failed to 
include a bill of rights ; but at the same time 
he declared that while he was not of the party 
of Federalists, he was much further from that 
of the Antifederalists. The Federal Convention 
he characterized as " an assembly of demi- 
gods." 

The first contest over the new Constitution 
came in Pennsylvania. The Federalists in that 
state were numerous, but their oppo- ^, 

' ^ ^ r r Tne contest 

nents had one point in their favour in Pennsyi- 
which they did not fail to make the 
most of The constitution of Pennsylvania was 
peculiar. Its legislature consisted of a single 
house, and its president was chosen by that 
house. Therefore, said the Antifederalists, if 
we approve of a federal constitution which pro- 
vides for a legislature of two houses and chooses 
a president by the device of an electoral college, 
we virtually condemn the state constitution 
under which we live. This cry was raised with 
no little effect. But some of the strongest imme- 
diate causes of opposition to the new Constitu- 
tion were wanting in Pennsylvania. The friends 
of paper money were few there, and the objec- 
tions to the control of the central government 
over commerce were weaker than in many of 

371 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

the other states. The AntifederaHsts were 
strongest in the mountain district west of the 
Susquehanna, where the somewhat lawless pop- 
ulation looked askance at any plan that savoured 
of a stronger government and a more regular 
collection of revenue. In the eastern counties, 
and especially in Philadelphia, the Federalists 
could count upon a heavy majority. 

The contest began in the legislature on the 
28th of September, the very day on which Con- 
gress decided to submit the Constitution to the 
states, and before the news of the action had 
reached Philadelphia. The zeal of the Feder- 
alists was so intense that they could wait no 
longer, and they hurried the event with a high- 
handed vigour that was not altogether seemly. 
The assembly was on the eve of breaking up, 
and a new election was to be held on the first 
Tuesday of November. The Antifederalists 
hoped to make a stirring campaign, and secure 
such a majority in the new legislature as to pre- 
vent the Constitution from being laid before 
the people. But their game was frustrated by 
George Clymer, who had sat in the Federal 
Convention, and now most unexpectedly moved 
that a state convention be called to consider the 
proposed form of government. Great was the 
wrath of the Antifederalists. Mr. Clymer was 
quite out of order, they said. Congress had not 
yet sent them the Constitution ; and besides, 
372 



CROWNING THE WORK 

no such motion could be made without notice 
given beforehand, nor could it be voted on till 
it had passed three readings. Parliamentary 
usage was doubtless on the side of the Anti- 
tederalists, but the majority were clamorous, 
and overwhelmed them with cries of " Ouestion, 
question ! " The question was then put, and 
carried by forty-three votes against nineteen, 
and the house adjourned till four o'clock. Be- 
fore going to their dinners the nineteen held an 
indignation meeting, at which it was decided that 
they would foil these outrageous proceedings by- 
staying away. It took forty-seven to make a 
quorum, and without these malcontents the as- 
sembly num.bered but forty-five. When the 
house was called to order after dinner, it was 
found there were but forty-five members pre- 
sent. The sergeant-at-arms was sent to sum- 
mon the delinquents, but they defied him, and 
so it became necessary to adjourn till next morn- 
ing. It was now the turn of the Federalists to 
uncork the vials of wrath. The affair was dis- 
cussed in the taverns till after midnight, the 
nineteen were abused without stint, and soon 
after breakfast, next mornlnpf, two of „ 

' o' How to 

them were visited by a crowd of men, make a 
who broke into their lodgings and '^"°''""^ 
dragged them off" to the state house, where they 
were forcibly held down in their seats, growling 
and muttering curses. This made a quorum, 

373 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

and a state convention was immediately ap- 
pointed for the 20th of November. Before these 
proceedings were concluded, an express rider 
brought the news from New York that Congress 
had submitted the Constitution to the judgment 
of the states. 

And now there ensued such a war of pam- 
phlets, broadsides, caricatures, squibs, and stump 
speeches as had never been seen in America. 
Cato and Aristides, Cincinnatus and Plain Truth, 
were out in full force. What was the matter 
with the old Confederation ? asked the Anti- 
federalists. Had it not conducted a glorious 
and triumphant war ? Had it not set us free 
from the oppression of England ? That there 
was some trouble now in the country could not 
be denied, but all would be right if people would 
only curb their extravagance, wear homespun 
clothes, and obey the laws. There was gov- 
ernment enough in the country already. This 
Philadelphia convention ought to be distrusted. 
Some of its members, such as John Dickinson 
and Robert Morris, had opposed the Declara- 
tion of Independence. Pretty men these, to be 
offering us a new government ! You might be 
sure there was a British cloven foot in it some- 
where. Their convention had sat four months 
with closed doors, as if they were afraid to let 
people know what they were about. Nobody 
could tell what secret conspiracies against Ameri^ 
374 



CROWNING THE WORK 

can liberty might not have been hatched in all 
that time. One thing was sure : the convention 
had squabbled. Some members had gone home 
in a huff; others had refused to sign a docu- 
ment fraught with untold evils to the country. 
And now came James Wilson, making speeches 
in behalf of this precious Constitution, and try- 
ing to pull the wool over people's eyes and 
persuade them to adopt it. Who was James 
Wilson, anyway ? A Scotchman, a countryman 
of Lord Bute, a born aristocrat, a snob, a pa- 
trician, Jimmy, James de Caledonia. Beware of 
any form of government defended by such a 
man. And as to the other members of the con- 
vention, there was Roger Sherman, who had 
signed the articles of confederation, and was 
now trying to undo his own work. What con- 
fidence could be placed in a man who did not 
know his own mind any better than that ? Then 
there were Hamilton and Madison, mere boys ; 
and Franklin, an old dotard, a man in his second 
childhood. And as to Washington, he was doubt- 
less a good soldier, but what did he know about 
politics ? So said the more moderate of the mal- 
contents, hesitating for the moment to speak 
disrespectfully of such a man ; but presently 
their zeal got the better of them, and in a paper 
signed " Centinel " it was boldly declared that 
Washington was a born fool ! 

From the style and temper of these argu- 

375 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

ments one clearly sees that the Antifederalists 
in Pennsylvania felt from the beghining that the 
day was going against them. Sixteen of the men 
who had seceded from the assembly, headed bv 
Robert Whitehill of Carlisle, issued a manifesto 
setting forth the ill-treatment they had received, 
and sounding an alarm against the dangers of 
tyranny to which the new Constitution was 
already exposing them. They were assisted 
by Richard Henry Lee, who published a series 
of papers entitled " Letters from the Federal 
Farmer," and scattered thousands of copies 
through the state of Pennsylvania. He did not 
deny that the government needed reforming, but 
in the proposed plan he saw the seeds of aris- 
tocracy and of centralization. The chief objec- 
tions to the Constitution were that it created a 
national legislature in which the vote was to be 
by individuals, and not by states ; that it granted 
to this body an unlimited power of taxation ; 
that it gave too much power to the federal judi- 
ciary ; that it provided for paying the salaries 
of members of Congress out of the federal trea- 
sury, and would thus make them independent 
of their own states ; that it required an oath 
of allegiance to the federal government ; and 
finally, that it did not include a bill of rights. 
These objections were very elaborately set forth 
by the leading Antifederalists in the state con- 
vention ; but the logic and eloquence of James 
376 



CROWNING THE WORK 

Wilson bore down all opposition. The Anti- 
federalists resorted to filibustering. Five days, 
it is said, were used up in settling the meanings 
of the two words " annihilation " and " consoli- 
dation." In this way the convention was kept 
sitting for nearly three weeks, when news came 
from " the Delaware state," as it used then to 
be called in Pennsylvania. The concession of 
an equal representation in the federal Senate had 
removed the only ground of opposi- Delaware 
tion In Delaware, and the Federalists consdtution, 
had everything their own way there. ^^^- ^» 
In a convention assembled at Dover, Pennsyiva- 
on the 6th of December, the Con- "i^'D<^^-^^i 

' New Jersey, 

stltution was ratified without a single Dec i8 
dissenting voice. Thus did this little state lead 
the way in the good work. The news was re- 
ceived with exultation by the Federalists at 
Philadelphia, and on the I2th Pennsylvania rati- 
fied the Constitution by a two thirds vote of 
46 to 23. The next day all business was quite 
at a standstill, while the town gave itself up to 
processions and merrymaking. The convention 
of New Jersey had assembled at Trenton on 
the nth, and one week later, on the i8th, it 
ratified the Constitution unanimously. 

A most auspicious beginning had thus been 
made. Three states, one third of the whole num- 
ber required, had ratified almost at the same 
moment. Two of these, moreover, were small 

377 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

states, which at the beginning of the Federal 
Convention had been obstinately opposed to 
any fundamental change in the government. It 
was just here that the Federalists were now 
strongest. The Connecticut compromise had 
wrought with telling effect, not only in the con- 
vention, but upon the people of the states. 
When the news from Trenton was received m 
Pennsylvania, there was great rejoicing in the 
eastern counties, while beyond the Susquehanna 
there were threats of armed rebellion. On the 
day after Christmas, as the Federalists of Car- 
lisle were about to light a bonfire on the com- 
mon and fire a salute, they were driven off the 
field by a mob armed with bludgeons, their 
rickety old cannon was spiked, and an almanac 
for the new year, containing a copy of the Con- 
stitution, was duly cursed, and then burned. 
Next day the Federalists, armed with muskets, 
came back, and went through their ceremonies. 
Their opponents did not venture to molest 
them ; but after they had dispersed, an Anti- 
federalist demonstration was made, and effigies 
of James Wilson and Thomas McKean, another 
prominent Federalist, were dragged to the com- 
mon, and there burned at the stake. 

The action of Delaware and New Jersey had 
shown that the Antifederalists could not build 
any hopes upon the antagonism between large 
and small states. It was thought, however, that 

378 



CROWNING THE WORK 

the southern states would unite in opposing the 
Constitution from their dread of becoming com- 
mercially subjected to New England. But the 
compromise on the slave-trade had broken 

through this opposition. On the 2d Georgia rati- 

of Tanuary, 1788, the Constitution fies, jan. 2, 

-^ .^ •. ' . . , J 1788; Con- 

was ratified in Creorgia without a word nectkut, 

of dissent. One week later Connecti- J^"- 9 
cut ratified by a vote of 128 to 40, after a ses- 
sion of only five days. 

The hopes of the Antifederalists now rested 
upon Massachusetts, where the state conven- 
tion assembled on the 9th of January, the same 
day on which that of Connecticut broke up. 
Should Massachusetts refuse to ratify, there 
would be no hope for the Constitution. Even 
should nine states adopt it without r^^^ outlook 
her, no one supposed a Federal Union J" Massachu- 
feasible from which so great a state 
should be excluded. Her action, too, would 
have a marked effect upon other states. It could 
not be denied that the outlook in Massachu- 
setts was far from encouraging. The embers of 
the Shays rebellion still smouldered there, and 
in the mountain counties of Worcester and 
Berkshire were heard loud murmurs of discon- 
tent. Laws impairing the obligation of contracts 
were just what these hard-pressed farmers de- 
sired, and by the proposed Constitution all such 
laws were forever prohibited. The people of 
379 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

the district of Maine, which had formed part of 
Massachusetts for nearly a century, were anx- 
ious to set up an independent government for 
themselves ; and they feared that if they Vv'ere 
to enter into the new and closer Federal Union 
as part of that state, they might hereafter find 
it impossible to detach themselves. For this 
reason half of the Maine delegates were opposed 
to the Constitution. In none of the thirteen 
states, moreover, was there a more intense de- 
votion to state rights than in Massachusetts. 
Nowhere had local self-government reached a 
higher degree of efficiency ; nowhere had the 
town meeting flourished with such vigour. It 
was especially characteristic of men trained in 
the town meeting to look with suspicion upon 
all delegated power, upon all authority that was 
to be exercised from a distance. They believed 
it to be all important that people should man- 
age their own affairs, instead of having them 
managed by other people ; and so far had this 
principle been carried that the towns of Massa- 
chusetts were like little semi-independent re- 
publics, and the state was like a league of such 
republics, whose representatives, sitting in the 
state legislature, were like delegates strictly 
bound by instructions rather than untrammelled 
members of a deliberative body. To men trained 
in such a school, it would naturally seem that 
the new Constitution delegated altogether too 
380 



CROWNING THE WORK 

much power to a governing body which must 
necessarily be remote from most of its constitu- 
ents. It was feared that some sort of tyranny 
might grow out of this, and such fears were en- 
tertained by men who were not in the shghtest 
degree infected with Shaysism, as the political 
disease of the inland counties was then called. 
Such fears were entertained by one of the great- 
est citizens that Massachusetts has ever pro- 
duced, the man who has been well described as 
preeminently "the man of the town meeting," 
— Samuel Adams. The limitations of this great 
man, as well as his powers, were those which 
belonged to him as chief among the men of 
English race who have swayed society through 
the medium of the ancient folk mote. At this 
time he was believed by many to be hostile to 
the new Constitution, and his influence in Mas- 
sachusetts was still greater than that of any 
other man. Besides this, it was thought that 
the governor, John Hancock, was half-hearted 
in his support of the Constitution, and it was 
in everybody's mouth that Elbridge Gerry had 
refused to set his name to that document be- 
cause he felt sure it would create a tyranny. 

Such symptoms encouraged the Antifederal- 
ists in the hope that Massachusetts would re- 
ject the Constitution and ruin the plans of the 
" visionary young men" — as Richard Henry 
Lee called them — who had swayed the Federal 

381 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

Convention. But there were strong forces at 
work in the opposite direction. In Boston and 
all the large coast towns, even those of the 
Maine district, the dominant feeling was Fed- 
eralist. All well-to-do people had been alarmed 
by the Shays insurrection, and merchants, ship- 
wrights, and artisans of every sort were con- 
vinced that there was no prosperity in store for 
them until the federal government should have 
control over commerce, and be enabled to make 
its strength felt on the seas and in Europe. In 
these views Samuel Adams shared so thoroughly 
that his attitude toward the Constitution at this 
moment was really that of a waverer rather than 
an opponent. Amid balancing considerations 
he found it for some time hard to make up his 
mind. 

In the convention which met on the 9th of 
January there sat Gorham, Strong, and King, 
who had taken part in the Federal Convention. 
There were also Samuel Adams and James 
Bowdoin ; the revolutionary generals, Heath 
and Lincoln ; and the rising statesmen, Sedg- 
wick, Parsons, and Fisher Ames, whose elo- 
quence was soon to become so famous. There 
were twenty-four clergymen, of various denom- 
inations, — men of sound scholarship, and sev- 
eral of them eminent for worldly wisdom and 
liberality of temper. Governor Hancock pre- 
sided, gorgeous in crimson velvet and finest 
382 



CROWNING THE WORK 

laces, while about the room sat many browned 
and weatherbeaten farmers, among whom were 
at least eighteen who hardly a year ago had 
marched over the pine-clad mountain ridges of 
Petersham, under the banner of the rebel Shays. 
It was a wholesome no less than a generous 
policy that let these men come in and freely 
speak their minds. The air was thus the sooner 
cleared of discontent ; the disease was thus the 
more likely to heal itself. In all there were 
three hundred and fifty-five delegates present, 
— a much larger number than took part in any 
of the other state conventions. The people of 
all parts of Massachusetts were thoroughly re- 
presented, as befitted the state which was pre- 
eminent in the active political life of its town 
meetings, and the work done here was in some 
respects decisive in its effect upon the adoption 
of the Constitution. 

The convention began by overhauling that 
document from beginning to end, discussing 
it clause by clause with somewhat wearisome 
minuteness. Some of the objections seem odd 
to us at this time, with our larger ex- Debates in 
perience. It was several days before ^hus^tts'''' 
the minds of the country members convention 
could be reconciled to the election of represent- 
atives for so long a period as two years. They 
had not been wont to delegate power to anybody 
for so long a time, not even to their selectmen, 

383 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

whom they had always under their eyes. How 
much more dangerous was it hkely to prove if 
delegated authority were to be exercised for so 
long a period at some distant federal city, such 
as the Constitution contemplated ! There was 
a vague dread that in some indescribable wav 
the new Congress might contrive to make its 
sittings perpetual, and thus become a tyrannical 
oligarchy, which might tax the people without 
their consent. And then as to this federal city, 
there were some who did not like the idea. A 
district ten miles square ! Was not that a great 
space to give up to the uncontrolled discretion 
of the federal government, wherein it could 
wreak its tyrannical will without let or hin- 
drance ? One of the delegates thought he could 
be reconciled to the new Constitution if this 
district could only be narrowed down to one 
mile square. And then there was the power 
granted to Congress to maintain a standing 
army, of which the president was to be ex officio 
commander-in-chief. Did this not open the 
door for a Cromwell ? It was to be a standing 
army for at least two years, since this was the 
shortest period between elections. Why, even 
the British Parliament, since 1688, did not keep 
up a standing army for more than one year at 
a time, but renewed its existence annually under 
what was termed the Mutiny Act. But what 
need of a standing army at all ? Would it not 
3H 



CROWNING THE WORK 

be sure to provoke needless disorders ? Had 
they already forgotten the Boston Massacre, 
in spite of all the orations that had been deliv- 
ered in the Old South Meeting House? A 
militia, organized under the town meeting sys- 
tem, was surely all-sufficient. Such a militia 
had won glorious triumphs at Lexington and 
Bennington, and at King's Mountain, had not 
an army of militia surrounded and captured an 
army of regulars led by one of England's most 
skilful officers? What more could you ask? 
Clearly this plan for a standing army foreboded 
tyranny. Upon this point Mr. Nason, from 
the Maine district, had his say, in tones of in- 
imitable bombast. " Had I the voice of Jove," 
said he, " I would proclaim it throughout the 
world ; and had I an arm like Jove, I would 
hurl from the globe those villains that would 
dare attempt to establish in our country a 
standing army ! " 

Next came the complaint that the Constitu- 
tion did not recognize the existence of God, 
and provided no religious tests for candidates 
for federal offices. But, strange to say, this ob- 
jection did not come from the clergy. It was 
urged by some of the country members, but 
the ministers in the convention were ,., , ^ 

Liberal at- 

nearly unanimous in opposing it. titude of 
There had been a remarkable change "^^^^^y 
of sentiment among the clergy of this state, 

385 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

which had begun its existence as a theocracy, 
in which none but church members could vote 
or hold office. The seeds of modern liberahsm 
had been planted in their minds. When Amos 
Singletary of Sutton declared it to be scandalous 
that a Papist or an infidel should be as eligi- 
ble to office as a Christian, — a remark which 
naively assumed that Roman Catholics were 
not Christians, — the Rev. Daniel Shute of 
Hingham replied that no conceivable advantage 
could result from a religious test. Yes, said the 
Rev. Philip Payson of Chelsea, " human tribu- 
nals for the consciences of men are impious en- 
croachments upon the prerogatives of God. A 
religious test, as a qualification for office, would 
have been a great blemish." " In reason and in 
the Holy Scripture," said the Rev. Isaac Backus 
of Middleborough, "religion is ever a matter 
between God and the individual ; the imposing 
of religious tests hath been the greatest engine 
of tyranny in the world." With this liberal 
stand firmly taken by the ministers, the religious 
objection was speedily overruled. 

Then the clause which allows Congress to 
regulate the times, places, and manner of hold- 
ing federal elections was severely criticised. It 
was feared that Congress would take advan- 
tage of this provision to destroy the freedom 
of elections. It was further objected that mem- 
bers of Congress, being paid their salaries from 

386 



CROWNING THE WORK 

the federal treasury, would become too Inde- 
pendent of their constituents. Federal collec- 
tors of revenue, moreover, would not be so 
likely to act with moderation and justice as 
collectors appointed by the state. Then it was 
very doubtful whether the people could sup- 
port the expense of an elaborate federal gov- 
ernment. They were already scarcely able to 
pay their town, county, and state taxes ; was it 
to be supposed they could bear the additional 
burden with which federal taxation would load 
them ? Then the compromise on the slave- 
trade was fiercely attacked. They did not wish 
to have a hand in licensing this nefarious traf- 
fic for twenty years. But it was urged, on the 
other hand, that by prohibiting the foreign 
slave-trade after 1808 the Constitution was 
really dealing a death-blow to slavery ; and this 
opinion prevailed. 

During the whole course of the discussion, 
observed the Rev. Samuel West of New Bed- 
ford, it seemed to be taken for granted that 
the federal government was going to be put 
into the hands of crafty knaves. " I wish," said 
he, " that the gentlemen who have started so 
many possible objections would try to show us 
that what they so much deprecate is probable. 
. , . Because power may be abused, shall we 
be reduced to anarchy? What hinders our state 
legislatures from abusing their powers ? . . « 

387 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

May we not rationally suppose that the per-= 
sons we shall choose to administer the govern- 
ment will be, in general, good men ? " General 
Thompson said he was surprised to hear such 
an argument from a clergyman, who was pro- 
fessionally bound to maintain that all men were 
totally depraved. For his part, he believed they 
were so, and he could prove it from the Old 
Testament. " I would not trust them," echoed 
Abraham White of Bristol, " though every one 
of them should be a Moses." 

The feeling of distrust was strongest among 
the farmers from the mountain districts. As 
Rufus King said, they objected, not so much to 
the Constitution as to the men who made it 
and the men who sang its praises. They hated 
lawyers, and were jealous of wealthy merchants. 
" These lawyers," said Amos Singletary, " and 
men of learning, and moneyed men that talk 
so finely and gloss over matters so smoothly, 
to make us poor illiterate people swallow the 
pill, expect to get into Congress themselves. 
They mean to be managers of the Constitu- 
tion. Thev mean to get all the money into 
their hands, and then they will swallow up 
us little folk, like the great Leviathan, Mr. 
President ; yes, just as the whale swallowed up 
Jonah." Here a more liberal-minded farmer, 
Jonathan Smith of Lanesborough, rose to reply 
with references to the Shays rebellior which 

388 



CROWNING THE WORK 

presently called forth cries of " Order ! '* from 
some of the members. Samuel Adams said the 
gentleman was quite in order, — let him go on 
in his own way. " I am a plain man," ^ 

/ J^ ■* Speech or 

said Mr. Smith, "and am not used a Berkshire 
to speak in public, but I am going to ^"^^^^ 
show the effects of anarchy, that you may see 
why I wish for good government. Last winter 
people took up arms, and then, if you went to 
speak to them, you had the musket of death 
presented to your breast. They would rob you 
of your property, threaten to burn your houses, 
oblige you to be on your guard night and day. 
Alarms spread from town to town, families were 
broken up ; the tender mother would cry, ' Oh, 
my son is among them ! What shall I do for 
my child ? ' Some were taken captive ; children 
taken out of their schools and carried away. 
. . . How dreadful was this ! Our distress was 
so great that we should have been glad to 
snatch at anything that looked like a govern- 
ment. . . . Now, Mr. President, when I saw 
this Constitution, I found that it was a cure 
for these disorders. I got a copy of it, and read 
it over and over. ... I did not go to any 
lawyer, to ask his opinion ; we have no lawyer 
in our town, and we do well enough without. 
My honourable old daddy there [pointing to 
Mr. Singletary] won't think that I expect to 
be a Congressman, and swallow up the liber- 
389 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

ties of the people. I never had any post, nor 
do I want one. But I don't think the worse of 
the Constitution because lawyers, and men of 
learning, and moneyed men are fond of it. I 
am not of such a jealous make. They that are 
honest men themselves are not apt to suspect 
other people. . . . Brother farmers, let us sup- 
pose a case, now. Suppose you had a farm of 
50 acres, and your title was disputed, and there 
was a farm of 5000 acres joined to you that 
belonged to a man of learning, and his title 
was involved in the same difficulty : would you 
not be glad to have him for your friend, rather 
than to stand alone in the dispute ? Well, the 
case is the same. These lawyers, these moneyed 
men, these men of learning, are all embarked 
in the same cause with us, and we must all sink 
or swim together. Shall we throw the Consti- 
tution overboard because it does not please us 
all alike ? Suppose two or three of you had 
been at the pains to break up a piece of rough 
land and sow it with wheat : would you let it 
lie waste because you could not agree what sort 
of a fence to make ? Would it not be better to 
put up a fence that did not please every one's 
fancy, rather than keep disputing about it until 
the wild beasts came in and devoured the crop ? 
Some gentlemen say. Don't be in a hurry; take 
time to consider. 1 say. There is a time to sow 
and a time to reap. We sowed our seed when 
390 



CROWNING THE WORK 

we sent men to the Federal Convention, now 
is the time to reap the fruit of our labour; and 
if we do not do it now, I am afraid we shall 
never have another opportunity." 

It may be doubted whether all the eloquence 
of Fisher Ames could have stated the case more 
forcibly than it was put by this plain farmer 
from the Berkshire hills. Upon Ames, with 
King, Parsons, Bowdoin, and Strong, fell the 
principal work in defending the Con- ^^^j^^jg ^^ 
stitution. For the first two weeks, Samud 
Samuel Adams scarcely opened his ^"" 
mouth, but listened with anxious care to every- 
thing that was said on either side. The con- 
vention was so evenly divided that there could 
be no doubt that his single voice would de- 
cide the result. Every one eagerly awaited his 
opinion. In the debate on the two years' term 
of members of Congress, he had asked Caleb 
Strong the reason why the Federal Convention 
had decided upon so long a term ; and when 
it was explained as a necessary compromise be- 
tween the views of so many delegates, he replied, 
" I am satisfied." "Will Mr. Adams kindly say 
that again ? " asked one of the members. " I am 
satisfied," he repeated ; and not another word 
was said on the subject in all those weeks. So 
profound was the faith of this intelligent and 
skeptical and independent people in the sound 
judgment and unswerving integrity of the Father 
391 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

of the Revolution ! As the weeks went by, and 
the issue seemed still dubious, the workingmen 
of Boston, shipwrights and brass-founders and 
other mechanics, decided to express their opin- 
ion in a way that they knew Samuel iVdams 
would heed. They held a meeting at the Green 
Dragon tavern, passed resolutions in favour of 
the Constitution, and appointed a committee, 
with Paul Revere at its head, to make known 
these resolutions to the great popular leader. 
When Adams had read the paper, he asked 
of Paul Revere, '' How many mechanics were 
at the Green Dragon when these resolutions 
passed? " " More, sir, than the Green Dragon 
could hold." "And where were the rest, Mr. 
Revere?" "In the streets, sir." "And how 
many were in the streets?" " More, sir, than 
there are stars in the sky." 

Between Samuel Adams and Thomas Jeffer- 
son there were several points of resemblance, 
/ the chief of which was an intense faith in the 
. sound common sense of the mass of the people. 
This faith was one of the strongest attributes 
of both these great men. It has usually been 
supposed that it was this incident of the meet- 
ing at the Green Dragon that determined 
Adams's final attitude in the state convention. 
Unquestionably, such a demonstration must 
have had great weight with him. But at the 
same time the affair was taking such a turn as 



CROWNING THE WORK 

would have decided him, even without the aid 
of this famous mass-meeting. The long delay 
in the decision of the Masachu setts conven- 
tion had carried the excitement to fever heat 
throughout the country. Not only were peo- 
ple from New Hampshire and New York and 
naughty Rhode Island waiting anxiously about 
Boston to catch every crumb of news they 
could get, but intrigues were going on, as far 
south as Virginia, to influence the result. On 
the 2 1 St of January the " Boston Gazette " came 
out with a warning, headed by enormous capi- 
tals with three exclamation-points: ^^ Bribery 
and Corruption 1 1 I The most diabolical plan 
is on foot to corrupt the members of the con- 
vention who oppose the adoption of the new 
Constitution. Large sums of money have been 
brought from a neighbouring state for that 
purpose, contributed by the wealthy. If so, 
is it not probable there may be collections 
for the same accursed purpose nearer home ? " 
No adequate investigation ever determined 
whether this charge was true or not. We may 
hope that it was ill-founded ; but our general 
knowledge of human nature must compel us to 
admit that there may have been a grain of truth 
in it. But what was undeniable was that Rich- 
ard Henry Lee wrote a letter to Gerry, urging 
that Massachusetts should not adopt the Con- 
stitution without insisting upon sundry amend- 

'^3Z 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

ments ; and in order to consider these amend- 
ments, it was suggested that there should be 
another Federal Cons^ention. At this anxious 
crisis, Washington suddenly threw himself into 
Washing- ^^^ breach with that infallible judg- 
ton's fruitful mcnt of his which always saw the way 

suggestion . r<- t r i t^ ^ ^ /-^ ' 

to Victory. It another l^ederal Con- 
vention is attempted," said Washington, " its 
members will be more discordant, and will agree 
upon no general plan. The Constitution is the 
best that can be obtained at this time. . . . The 
Consritution or disunion are before us to choose 
from. If the Constitution is our choice, a con- 
stitutional door is open for amendments, and 
they may be adopted in a peaceable manner, 
without tumult or disorder." 

When this advice of Washington's reached 
Boston, it set in motion a train of events which 
soon solved the difficulty, both for Massachu- 
setts and for the other states which had not yet 
made up their mind. Chief among the objec- 
tions to the Constitution had been the fact that 
it did not contain a bill of rights. It did not 
guarantee religious liberty, freedom of speech 
and of the press, or the right of the people 
peacefully to assemble and petition the govern- 
ment for a redress of grievances. It did not 
provide against the quartering of soldiers upon 
the people in time of peace. It did not pro- 
vide against general search-warrants, nor did it 
394 



CROWNING THE WORK 

securely prescribe the methods by which indi- 
viduals should be held to answer for criminal 
offences. It did not even provide that nobody 
should be burned at the stake or stretched on 
the rack, for holding pecuUar opinions about 
the nature of God or the origin of evil. That 
such objections to the Constitution seem strange 
to us to-day is partly due to the determined at- 
titude of the men who, amid all the troubles of 
the time, would not consent to any arrangement 
from which such safeguards to free thinking and 
free living should be omitted. The friends of 
the Constitution in Boston now proposed that 
the convention, while adopting it, should sug- 
gest sundry amendments containing the essen- 
tial provisions of a bill of rights. It was not in- 
tended that the ratification should be conditional. 
Under the circumstances, a conditional ratifica- 
tion might prove as disastrous as rejection. It 
might lead to a second Federal Convention, in 
which the good work already accomplished 
might be undone. The ratification was to be 
absolute, and the amendments were offered m 
the hope that action would be taken upon them 
as soon as the new government should go mto 
operation. There could be little doubt that the 
suggestion would be heeded, not onlv from the 
importance of Massachusetts in the Union, but 
also from the fact that Virginia and other states 
would be sure to follow her example in suggest- 
395 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

ing such amendments. This forecast proved 
quite correct, and it was in this way that the 
first ten amendments originated, which were 
acted on by Congress in 1790, and became part 
of the Constitution in 1791. 

As soon as this plan had been matured, Han- 
cock proposed it to the convention ; the hearty 
support of Adams was immediately insured, and 
within a week from that time, on the 6th of 
February, the Constitution was ratified by the 
Massachu- narrow majority of 187 votes against 
setts ratifies, j^g, Qn that samc dav Jefferson, in 

proposing -r*' iv/rj' ' t'I'i 

amendments, Paris, wrotc to Madison : 1 wish with 
Feb. 6, 1788 ^11 j^y gQ^i ^1^^^ ^i^g j^jj^g ^^g^ conven- 
tions mav accept the new Constitution, to secure 
to us the good it contains ; but I equally wish 
that the four latest, whichever they may be, may 
refuse to accede to it till a declaration of rights 
be annexed ; but no objection to the new form 
must produce a schism in our Union." But as 
soon as he heard of the action of Massachusetts, 
he approved it as preferable to his own idea, 
and he wrote home urging Virginia to follow 
the example. 

Massachusetts was thus the sixth state to 
ratify the Constitution. On that day the name 
of the Long Lane by the meeting-house where 
the convention had sat was changed to Federal 
Street. The Boston people, said Henry Knox, 
had quite lost their senses with joy. The two 

:iq6 



CROWNING THE WORK 

counties of Worcester and Berkshire had given 
but fourteen yeas against fifty- nine nays, but the 
farmers went home declaring that they should 
cheerfully abide by the decision of the majority. 
Not a murmur was heard from any one. 

About the time that the Massachusetts con- 
vention broke up, that of New Hampshire 
assembled at Exeter ; but after a brief discus- 
sion it was decided to adjourn until June, in 
order to see how the other states would act. 
On the aist of April the Maryland convention 
assembled at Annapolis; and Washington ex- 
pressed a hope that it would not adjourn with- 
out coming to a decision, for the Antifederalists 
were gloating over the postponement in New 
Hampshire. Their glee was short-lived, how- 
ever. Some of Maryland's strongest men, such 
as Luther Martin and Samuel Chase, Maryland 
were Antifederalists ; but their efforts ratifies, 
were or no avail. Arter a session or 
five days the Constitution was ratified by a vote 
of sixty-three to eleven. Whatever damage New 
Hampshire might have done was thus more than 
made good. 

The eyes of the whole country were now 
turned upon the eighth state. South Carolina. 
Her convention was to meet at Charleston on 
the 1 2th of May, the anniversary of the day 
on which General Lincoln had surrendered that 
city to Sir Henry Clinton ; but there had been 
397 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

a decisive preliminary struggle in the legislature 
in January. The most active of the Antifed- 
eralists was Rawlins Lowndes, who had opposed 
the Declaration of Independence. Lowndes was 
betrayed into silliness. "We are now," said he, 
"under a most excellent constitution, — a bless- 
ing from Heaven, that has stood the test of 
time [!!], and given us liberty and independ- 
ence ; yet we are impatient to pull down that 
fabric which we raised at the expense of our 
blood." This was not very convincing to the 
assembly, most of the members knowing full 
well that the fabric had not stood the test of 
time, but had already tumbled in by reason of 
its vicious construction. A more effective plea 
was that which referred to the slave-trade. 
" What cause is there," said Lowndes, " for 
jealousy of our importing negroes ? Why con- 
fine us to twenty years P Why limit us at all ? 
This trade can be justified on the principles of 
Debates in rcHgion and humanity. They do not 
cam^iTa^ Hkc our having slaves because they 
legLiature have nonc themselves, and therefore 
want to exclude us from this great advantage." 
Cotesworth Pinckney replied : " By this settle- 
ment we have secured an unlimited importation 
of negroes for twenty years. The general gov- 
ernment can never emancipate them, for no 
such authority is granted, and it is admitted on 
all hands that the general government has no 

398 



CROWNING THE WORK 

powers but what are expressly granted by the 
Constitution. We have obtained a right to re- 
cover our slaves in whatever part of the coun- 
try they may take refuge, which is a right we 
had not before. In short, considering all cir- 
cumstances, we have made the best terms in 
our power for the security of this species of 
property. We would have made better if we 
could ; but, on the whole, I do not think them 
bad." 

Perhaps Pinckney would not have assumed 
exactly this tone at Philadelphia, but at Charles- 
ton the argument was convincing. Lowndes 
then sounded the alarm that the New England 
states would monopolize the carrying- trade and 
charge ruinous freights, and he drew a harrow- 
ing picture of warehouses packed to bursting 
with rice and indigo spoiling because the own- 
ers could not afford to pay the Yankee skippers' 
prices for carrying their goods to market. But 
Pinckney rejoined that a Yankee shipmaster in 
quest of cargoes would not be likely to ruin his 
own chances for getting them, and he called 
attention to the great usefulness of the eastern 
merchant marine as affording material for a 
navy, and thus contributing to the defence of 
the country. Finally Lowndes put in a plea 
for paper money, but with little success. The 
result of the debate set the matter so clearly 
before the people that a great majority of Fed- 
399 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

eralists were elected to the convention. Among 
them were Gadsden, the Rutledges and the 
Pinckneys, Moultrie, and William Washing- 
ton, who had become a citizen of the state from 
which he had helped to expel the British in- 
vader. The Antifederalists were largely repre- 
sented by men from the upland counties, 
belonging to a population in which there was 
considerable likeness all along the Appalachian 
chain of mountains, from Pennsylvania to the 
southern extremity of the range. There were 
among them many "moonshiners," as they 
were called, — distillers of illicit whiskey, — and 
they did not relish the idea of a federal excise. 
At their head was Thomas Sumter, a convert 
to the scheme for a southern confederacy. 
South caro- Their policy was one of delay and 
lina ratifies, obstruction, but it availcd them lit- 
^^ ^^ tie, for on the '23d of May, after a 

session of eleven days. South Carolina ratified 
the Constitution by a vote of 149 against 73. 

The astute policy of the Federal Convention 
in adopting the odious compromise over the 
slave-trade was now about to bear fruit. In 
Virginia there was a nascent sentiment in favour 
of establishing a separate southern confederacy. 
By the action of South Carolina all such pos- 
sible schemes w^ere now nipped in the bud. Of 
the states south of Mason and Dixon's line, 
three had now ratified the Constitution, so that 
400 



CROWNING THE WORK 

any separate confederacy could now consist 
only of Virginia and North Carolina. The 
reason for this short-lived separatist j^ ^^^^^^ 
feeling in Virginia was to be found in effect upon 
the complications which had grown ^'^'"'^ 
out of the attempt of Spain to close the Mis- 
sissippi River. It will be remembered that only 
two years before, Jay had actually recommended 
to Congress that the right to navigate the lower 
Mississippi be surrendered for twenty-five years, 
in exchange for a favourable commercial treaty 
with Spain. The New England states, caring 
nothing for the distant Mississippi, supported 
this measure in Congress ; and this narrow and 
selfish policy naturally created alarm in Vir- 
ginia, which, in her district of Kentucky, 
touched upon the great river. Thus to the 
vague dread felt by the southern states in gen- 
eral, in the event of New England's controlling 
the commercial policy of the government, there 
was added, in Virginia's case, a specific fear. 
If the New England people were thus ready 
to barter away the vital interests of a remote 
part of the country, what might they not do ? 
Would they ever stop at anything so long as 
they could go on building up their commerce ? 
This feeling strongly influenced Patrick Henry 
in his opposition to the Constitution ; ^ and we 

^ There were some who suspected Henry of working in 
favour of the scheme for a separate southern confederacy 
401 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

have seen how Randolph and Mason, In the 
Federal Convention, were so disturbed at the 
power given to Congress to regulate commerce 
by a simple majority of votes that they refused 
to set their names to the Constitution. They 
alleged further reasons for their refusal, but this 
was the chief one. They wanted a two thirds 
vote to be required, in order that the South 
might retain the means of protecting itself. 
Under these circumstances the opposition to 
the Constitution was very strong, and but for 
the action of South Carolina the party in favour 
of a separate confederacy might have been 
capable of doing much mischief. As it was, 
since that party had actively intrigued in South 
Carolina and Maryland, the ratification of the 
Constitution by both these states was a direct 
rebuff. It quite demoralized the advocates of 
secession. The paper-money men, moreover, 
were handicapped by the fact that two of the 
most powerful Antifederalists, Mason and Lee, 
were determined opponents of a paper currency, 
so that this subject had to be dropped or very 
gingerly dealt with. The strength of the Anti- 
federalists, though impaired by these causes, 
was still very great. The contest was waged 

See Madison's Works, i. 388 ; Bancroft's History of the 
Constitution, ii. 465. But clcarly he did not go so far as 
this. See Elliott's Debates, iii. 57, 63, 161 ; Henry's 
Patrick Henry, ii. 332 ; Tyler's Patrick Henry, 288. 
402 



CROWNING THE WORK 

with all the more intensity of feeling because, 
since eight states had now adopted the Con- 
stitution, the verdict of Virginia would be de- 
cisive. 

The convention met at Richmond on the 
2d of June, and Edmund Pendleton was chosen 
president. Foremost among the Antifederalists 
was Patrick Henry, whose eloquence „ , 
was now as zealously employed against the vhginia 

^1 . -^ 1 J 1 • Convention 

the new government as it had been m 
bygone days against the usurpations of Great 
Britain. He was supported by George Mason, 
as well as by Benjamin Harrison and John 
Tyler, the fathers of two future presidents, and 
James Monroe, who was to be president him- 
self; and he could count on the votes of most 
of the delegates from the midland counties, 
from the south bank of the James River, and 
from Kentucky. But the united talents of the 
opposition had no chance of success in a con- 
flict with the genius and tact of Madison, who 
at one moment crushed, at another conciliated, 
his opponent, but always won the day. To 
Madison, more than any other man, the Fed- 
eralist victory was due. But he was ably sec- 
onded by Governor Randolph, whom he began 
by winning over from the opposite party, and 
by the favourite general and eloquent speaker, 
" Light-Horse Harry." Conspicuous in the 
ranks of Federalists, and unsurpassed in debate, 
403 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

was a tall and gaunt young man, with beaming 
countenance, eyes of piercing brilliancy, and an 
indescribable kingliness of bearing, who was by 
and by to become chief justice of the United 
States, and by his masterly and far-reaching de- 
cisions to win a place side by side with Madison 
and Hamilton among the founders of our na- 
tional government. John Marshall, second to 
none among all the illustrious jurists of the 
English race, was then, at the age of thirty- 
three, the foremost lawyer in Virginia. He had 
already served for several terms in the state 
legislature, but his national career began in this 
Madison and convcntion, whcrc his arguments with 
Marshaiipre- thosc of Madison, rcinforcinff each 

vail and Vir- ' . . ° 

ginia ratifies Other, borc down all opposition, i he 
June 25 details of the controversy were very 

much the same as in the states already passed 
in review, save in so far as coloured by the pe- 
culiar circumstances of Virginia. After more 
than three weeks of debate, on the a5th of 
June the question was put to vote, and the 
Constitution was ratified by the narrow majority 
of 89 against 79. Amendments were offered, 
after the example of Massachusetts, which had 
already been followed by South Carolina and 
the minority in Maryland ; and, as in Massa- 
chusetts, the defeated Antifederalists announced 
their intention to abide loyally by the result.^ 
^ There was much that was sound and wise in the Anti- 
404 



CROWNING THE WORK 

The discussion had lasted so long that Vir- 
ginia lost the distinction of being the ninth 
state to ratify the Constitution. That honour 
had been reserved for New Hamp- New Hamp- 
shire, whose convention had met on akeady^ratj. 
the anniversary of Bunker Hill, and fied,june 21 
after a four days' session, on the 21st of June, 
had given its consent to the new government 
bv a vote of 57 against 46. The couriers from 
Virginia and those from New Hampshire, as 
they spurred their horses over long miles of 
dusty road, could shout to each other the joy- 
ous news in passing. Though the ratification 
of New Hampshire had secured the necessary 
ninth state, yet the action of Virginia was not 
the less significant and decisive. Virginia was 
at that time, and for a quarter of a century 
afterward, the most populous state in the 
Union, and one of the greatest in influence. 
Even with the needed nine states all in hand, it 
is clear that the new government could not 
have gone into successful operation with the 
leading state, the home of Washington himself, 

federalism of such men as Mason, Henry, and Tyler. Their 
dread of creating a tyranny was almost prophetic of the base 
uses to which the docrine of *< implied powers" was to be 
put, when under the specious phrases of ** internal improve- 
ments " and ** protection to native industry" it inaugurated 
the gigantic system of corruption and spoliation which we ha' e 
so long meekly endured. 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

left out in the cold. The New Roof, as men 
were then fond of calHng the Federal Constitu- 
tion, must speedily have fallen in without this 
indispensable prop. When it was known that 
Virginia had ratified, it was felt that the victory 
was won, and the success of the new scheme 
assured. The 4th of July, 1788, witnessed such 
loud rejoicings as have perhaps never been seen 
before or since on American soil. In Philadel- 
phia there was a procession miles in length, in 
which every trade was represented, and wagons 
laden with implements of industry or emblem- 
atic devices alternated with bands of music and 
gorgeous banners. There figured the New 
Roof, supported by thirteen columns, and there 
was to be seen the Ship of State, the good ship 
Constitution, made out of the barge which Paul 
Jones had taken from the shattered and blood- 
stained Serapis, after his terrible fight. As for 
the old scow Confederacy, Imbecility master, it 
was proclaimed she had foundered at sea, and 
" the sloop Anarchy, when last heard from, was 
ashore on Union Rocks." All over the country 
there were processions and bonfires, and in 
some towns there were riots. In Providence 
the Federalists prepared a barbecue of oxen 
roasted whole, but a mob of farmers, led by 
three members of the state legislature, attempted 
to disperse them, and were with some difficulty 
pacified. In Albany the Antifederalists publicly 
406 



CROWNING THE WORK 

burned the Constitution, whereupon a party of 
Federalists brought out another copy of it, and 
nailed it to the top of a pole, which they planted 
defiantly amid the ashes of the fire their oppo- 
nents had made. Out of these proceedings 
there grew a riot, in which knives were drawn, 
stones were thrown, and blood was shed. 

Such incidents might have served to remind 
one that the end had not yet come. The diffi- 
culties were not yet surmounted, and the re- 
joicing was in some respects premature. It 
was now settled that the new government was 
to go into operation, but how it was going to 
be able to get along without the adhesion of 
New York it was not easy to see. It The struggle 
is true that New York then ranked '" ^ew York 
only as fifth among the states in population, but 
commercially and militarily she was the centre 
of the Union. She not only touched at once 
on the ocean and the lakes, but she separated 
New England from the rest of the country. It 
was rightly felt that the Union could never be 
cemented without this central state. So strongly 
were people impressed with this feeling that 
some went so far as to threaten violence. It 
was said that if New York did not come into 
the Union peacefully and of her own accord, 
she should be conquered and dragged in. That 
she would come in peacefully seemed at first 
very improbable. When the state convention 
407 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

assembled at Poughkeepsie, on the 17th of 
June, more than two thirds of its members were 
avowed Antifederalists. At their head was the 
governor, George Clinton, hard-headed and 
resolute, the bitterest hater of the Constitution 
that could be found anywhere in the thirteen 
states. Foremost among his supporters were 
Yates and Lansing, with Melancton Smith, a 
man familiar with political history, and one of 
the ablest debaters in the country. On the 
Federalist side were such eminent men as Liv- 
ingston and Jay ; but the herculean task of 
vanquishing this great hostile majority, and 
converting it by sheer dint of argument into a 
majority on the right side, fell chiefly upon the 
shoulders of one man. 

But for Alexander Hamilton the decision of 
New York would unquestionably have been 
adverse to the Constitution. Nay, more, it is 
very improbable that, but for him, the good 
work would have made such progress as it had 
in the other states. To get the people to adopt 
the Constitution, it was above all things need- 
ful that its practical working should be ex- 
pounded, in language such as every one could 
understand, by some writer endowed in a high 
degree with political intelligence and foresight. 
Upon their return from the Federal Conven- 
tion, Yates and Lansing had done all in their 
power to bring its proceedings into ill-repute. 
408 



CROWNING THE WORK 

Pamphlets and broadsides were scattered right 
and left. The Constitution was termed the 
" triple-headed monster," and declared to be 
" as deep and wicked a conspiracy as ever was 
invented in the darkest ages against the liberties 
of a free people." It soon occurred to Hamil- 
ton that it would be well worth while to explain 
the meaning of all parts of the Constitution in 
a series of short, incisive essays. He communi- 
cated his plan to Madison and Jay, who joined 
him in the work, and the result was the " Fed- 
eralist," perhaps the most famous of American 
books, and surely one of the most profound and 
suggestive treatises on government that have 
ever been written. Of the eighty-five The ''Fed- 
numbers originally published in the ^''^^'^^" 
"Independent Gazetteer," under the common 
signature of "Publius," Jay wrote five, Madi- 
son twenty-nine, and Hamilton fifty-one.^ J^v's 
papers related chiefly to diplomatic points, with 
which his experience abroad had fitted him to 
deal. The first number was written by Hamil- 
ton in the cabin of a sloop on the Hudson, in 

^ Attempts have been repeatedly made to c/aim for Hamil- 
ton a dozen or more of the numbers written by Madison ; 
but there is no good ground for such a claim. The arguments 
of Mr. E. G. Bourne, in American Historical Review^ io 
443-460, 682-685, seem finally decisive. See, also, the 
excellent note in Bancroft's History of the United States^ 
New York, 1886, vi. 452. 

409 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

October, 1787; and they continued to appearj 
sometimes as often as three or four in a week, 
through the winter and spring. Madison would 
have contributed a larger share than he did had 
he not been called early in March to Virginia 
to fight the battle of the Constitution in that 
state. The essays were widely and eagerly read, 
and probably accomplished more toward insur- 
ing the adoption of the Constitution than any- 
thing else that was said or done in that eventful 
year. They were hastily written, — struck out 
at white heat by men full of their subject. 
Doubtless the authors did not realize the gran- 
deur of the literary work they were doing, and 
among the men of the time there were few who 
foresaw the immortal fame which these essays 
were to earn. It is said of one of the senators 
in the first Congress that he made the memor- 
andum, " Get the ' Federalist,' if I can, without 
buying it. It is n't worth it." But for all pos- 
terity the " Federalist " must remain the most 
authoritative commentary upon the Constitution 
that can be found ; for it is the joint work of 
the principal author of that Constitution and of 
its most brilliant advocate. 

In nothing could the flexibleness of Hamil- 
ton's intellect, or the genuineness of his patriot- 
ism, have been more finely shown than in the 
hearty zeal and transcendent ability with which 
he now wrote in defence of a plan of govern- 
410 



CROWNING THE WORK 

ment so different from what he would himself 
have proposed. He made Madison's thoughts 
his own, until he set them forth with force not 
inferior to Madison's. Yet no arguments could 
possibly be less chargeable with partisanship 
than the arguments of the " Federalist." The 
judgment is as dispassionate as could be shown 
in a philosophical treatise. The tone is one of 
grave and lofty eloquence, apt to move even to 
tears the reader who is fully alive to the stupen- 
dous issues that were involved in the discussion. 
Hamilton was supremely endowed with the fac- 
ulty of imagining, with all the circumstantial 
minuteness of concrete reality, political situa- 
tions diff^erent from those directly before him ; 
and he put this rare power to noble use in tra- 
cing out the natural and legitimate working of 
such a Constitution as that which the Federal 
Convention had framed. 

When it came to defending the Constitution 
before the hostile convention at Poughkeepsie, 
he had before him as arduous a task as ever 
fell to the lot of a parliamentary debater. It 
was a case where political management was out 
of the question. The opposition were too nu- 
merous to be silenced, or cajoled, or bargained 
with. They must be converted. With an elo- 
quence scarcely equalled before or since in 
America until Webster's voice was heard, Ham- 
ilton argued week after week, till at last Me- 
411 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

lancton Smith, the foremost debater of Clinton^s 
party, broke away, and came over to the Fed- 
eralist side. It was like crushing the centre of 
a hostile army. After this the Antifederalist 
forces were confused and easily routed. The 
decisive struggle was over the question whether 
New York could ratify the Constitution con- 
ditionally, reserving to herself the right to with- 
draw from the Union in case the amendments 
upon which she had set her heart should not be 
adopted. Upon this point Hamilton reinforced 
himself with the advice of Madison, who had 
just returned to New York. Could a state once 
adopt the Constitution, and then withdraw from 
the Union if not satisfied? Madison's reply 
was prompt and decisive. No, such a thing 
could never be done. A state which had once 
ratified was in the federal bond for- 
wins the cvcr. The Constitution could not 
Ind°Ne'w provide for nor contemplate its own 
York rati- ovcrthrow. Thcrc could be no such 

fies, July 26 , . ....,- 

thing as a constitutional right or se- 
cession. When Melancton Smith deserted the 
Antifederalists on this point, the victory was 
won, and on the 26th of July New York rati- 
fied the Constitution by the bare majoritv of 
thirty votes against twenty-seven. Rejoicings 
were now renewed throughout the country. In 
the city of New York there was an immense 
parade, and as the emblematic federal ship — 
412 



CROWNING THE WORK 

the Ship of State — was drawn through the 
streets, with Hamilton's name emblazoned on 
the vehicle that supported her, it was doubtless 
the proudest moment of the young statesman's 
life. 

New York, however, clogged her acceptance 
by proposing, a few days afterward, that a sec- 
ond Federal Convention be called for consider- 
ing the amendments suggested by the various 
states. The proposal was supported by the 
Virginia legislature, but Massachusetts and 
Pennsylvania opposed it, as having a danger- 
ous tendency to reopen the whole discussion 
and unsettle everything. The proposal fell to 
the ground. People were weary of the long 
dispute, and turned their attention to electing 
representatives to the first Congress. With the 
adhesion of New York all serious anxiety came 
to an end. The new government could be put 
in operation without waiting for North Caro- 
lina and Rhode Island to make up The laggard 
their minds. The North Carolina ^±^ 
convention met on the 2ist of July, Rhode island 
and adjourned on the ist of August without 
coming to any decision. The same objections 
were raised as in Virginia ; and besides, the 
paper-money party was here much stronger 
than in the neighbouring state. In Rhode 
Island paper money was the chief difficulty ; 
that state did not even take the trouble to call 

413 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

a convention. It was not until the 21st of No- 
vember, 1789, after Washington's government 
had been several months in operation, that 
North CaroHna joined the Federal Union. 
Rhode Island did not join till the 29th of 
May, 1 790. If she had waited but a few months 
longer, Vermont, the first state not of the origi- 
nal thirteen, would have come in before her. 

The autumn of 1788 was a season of busy- 
but peaceful electioneering. That remarkable 
body, the Continental Congress, in putting an 
end to its troubled existence, decreed that pre- 
sidential electors should be chosen on the first 
Wednesday of January, 1789, that the electors 
should meet and cast their votes for president 
on the first Wednesday in February, and that 
the Senate and House of Representatives should 
assemble on the first Wednesdav in March. 
This latter day fell, in 1789, on the 4th of the 
month, and accordingly, three years afterward, 
Congress took it for a precedent, and decreed 
that thereafter each new administration should 
begin on the 4th of March. It was further 
decided, after some warm debate, that until 
the site for the proposed federal city could be 
selected and built upon, the seat of the new 
government should be the city of New York. 

In accordance with these decrees, presidential 
elections were held on the first W^ednesday in 
January. The Antifederalists were still potent 
414 



CROWNING THE WORK 

for mischief in New York, with the result that, 
just as that state had not joined in the Declara- 
tion of Independence until after it had First presi- 
been proclaimed to the world, and just tbnllam'y 
as she refused to adopt the Federal ^789 
Constitution until after more than the requisite 
number of states had ratified it, so now she 
failed to choose electors, and had nothing to do 
with the vote that made Washington our first 
president. The other ten states that had ratified 
the Constitution all chose electors. But things 
moved slowly and cumbrously at this first as- 
sembling of the new government. The House 
of Representatives did not succeed in getting 
a quorum together until the ist of April. On 
the 6th, the Senate chose John Langdon for its 
president, and the two houses in concert counted 
the electoral votes. There were sixty-nine in all, 
and every one of the sixty-nine was found to be 
for George Washington of Virginia. For the 
second name on the list there was nothing like 
such unanimity. It was to be expected that the 
other name would be that of a citizen of Mas- 
sachusetts, as the other leading state in the 
Union. The two foremost citizens of Massa- 
chusetts bore the same name, and were cousins. 
There would have been most striking poetic 
justice in coupling with the name of Washing- 
ton that of Samuel Adams, since these two men 
had been indisputably foremost in the work of 

415 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

achieving the independence of the United States. 
But for the hesitancy of Samuel Adams in in- 
dorsing the Federal Constitution, he would very 
likely have been our first vice-president and our 
second president. But the wave of federalism 
had now begun to sweep strongly over Massa- 
chusetts, carrying everything before it, and none 
but the most ardent Federalists had a chance to 
meet in the electoral college. Voices were raised 
in behalf of Samuel Adams. While we honour 
the American Fabius, it was said, let us not for- 
get the American Cato. It was urged by some, 
with much truth, that but for his wise and 
cautious action in the Massachusetts conven- 
tion, the good ship Constitution would have 
been fatally wrecked upon the reefs of Shays- 
ism. His course had not been that of an ob- 
structionist, like that of his old friends Henry 
and Lee and Gerry ; but at the critical moment 
— one of the most critical in all that wonder- 
ful crisis — he had thrown his vast influence, 
with decisive effect, upon the right side. All 
this is plain enough to the historian of to-day. 
But in the political fervour of the election of 
1789, the fact most clearly visible to men was 
that Samuel Adams had hesitated, and perhaps 
made things wait. These points came out most 
distinctly on the issue of his election to the 
Federal Congress, in which he was defeated by 
the youthful Fisher Ames, whose eloquence in 

4.6 



CROWNING THE WORK 

the state convention had been so conspicuous 
and useful ; but they serve to explain thor- 
oughly why he was not put upon the presi- 
dential list along with Washington. His cousin, 
John Adams, had just returned from his mission 
to England, weary and disgusted with the scanty 
respect which he had been able to secure for 
a feeble league of states that could not make 
good its own promises. His services during 
the Revolution had been of the most splendid 
sort; and after Washington, he was the second 
choice of the electoral college, receiving thirty- 
four votes, while John Jay of New York, his 
nearest competitor, received only nine. John 
Adams was accordingly declared vice-presi- 
dent. 

On the 14th of April Washington was In- 
formed of his election, and on the next day 
but one he bid adieu again to his beloved home 
at Mount Vernon, where he had hoped to pass 
the remainder of his days in that rural peace 
and quiet for which no one yearns like the man 
who is burdened with greatness and fame un- 
sought for. The position to which he was sum- 
moned was one of unparalleled splendour, — 
how splendid we can now realize much better 
than he, and our grandchildren will realize it 
better than we, — the position of first ruler of 
what was soon to become at once the strongest 
and the most peace-loving people upon the 

417 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

face of the earth. As he journeyed toward 
New York, his thoughts must have been busy 
with the arduous problems of the time. Al- 
ready, doubtless, he had marked out the two 
great men, Jefferson and Hamilton, for his 
chief advisers : the one to place us in a proper 
attitude before the mocking nations of Europe ; 
the other to restore our shattered credit, and 
enlist the moneyed interests of all the states in 
the success of the Federal Union. Washing- 
ton's temperament was a hopeful one, as be- 
fitted a man of his strength and dash. But in 
his most hopeful mood he could hardly have 
dared to count upon such a sudden demonstra- 
tion of national strength as was about to ensue 
upon the heroic financial measures of Hamil- 
ton. His meditations on this journey we may 
well believe to have been solemn and anxious 
enough. But if he could gather added courage 
from the often declared trust of his fellow coun- 
trymen, there was no lack of such comfort for 
him. At everv town through which he passed, 
fresh evidences of it were gathered, but at one 
point on the route his strong nature was espe- 
cially wrought upon. At Trenton, as he crossed 
the bridge over the Assunpink Creek, where 
twelve years ago, at the darkest moment of the 
Revolution, he had outwitted Cornwallis in the 
most skilful of stratagems, and turned threaten- 
ing defeat into glorious victory, — at this spot 
418 



CROWNING THE WORK 

so fraught with thrilling associations, he was 
met by a party of maidens dressed in white, 
who strewed his path with sweet spring flowers, 
while triumphal arches in softest green bore in- 
scriptions declaring that he who had watched 
over the -safety of the mothers could well be 
trusted to protect the daughters. On the 23d 
he arrived in New York, and was entertained 
at dinner by Governor Clinton. One week later, 
on the 30th, came the inauguration. It was one 
of those magnificent days of clearest sunshine 
that sometimes make one feel In inaugura- 
April as if summer had come. At t'°" "^ 
noon of that day Washington went ton, April 
from his lodgings, attended by a mil- ^°' ^"^^ 
itary escort, to Federal Hall, at the corner of 
Wall and Nassau streets, where his statue has 
lately been erected. The city was ablaze with 
excitement. A sea of upturned eager faces sur- 
rounded the spot, and as the hero appeared thou- 
sands of cocked hats were waved, while ladies 
fluttered their white handkerchiefs. Washing- 
ton came forth clad in a suit of dark brown cloth 
of American make, with white silk hose and 
shoes decorated with silver buckles, while at 
his side hung a dress-sword. For a moment all 
were hushed in deepest silence, while the secre- 
tary of the Senate held forth the Bible upon a 
velvet cushion, and Chancellor Livingston ad- 
ministered the oath of office. Then, before 
419 



THE CRITICAL PERIOD 

Washington had as yet raised his head, Liv- 
ingston shouted, — and from all the vast com- 
pany came answering shouts, — " Long live 
George Washington, President of the United 
States ! " 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

The bibliography of the period covered in this 
book is very copiously and thoroughly treated in the 
seventh volume of Winsor's Narrative and Critical 
History of North America^ Boston, 1888. For the 
benefit of the reader who may not have ready access 
to that vast storehouse of information, the following 
brief notes may be of service. 

The best account of the peace negotiations is to be 
found in chapter ii. of Winsor's volume just cited, 
written by Hon. John Jay, who had already discussed 
the subject quite thoroughly in his Address before the 
New York Historical Society on its Seventy-Ninth Anni- 
versary^ Nov. 27, 1883. Of the highest value are 
Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice's Life of Lord Shelhurne^ 3 
vols., London, 1875-76, and Adolphe de Circourt, 
Histoire de V action commune de la France et de V Am'e- 
rique^ etc.^ tome iii.. Documents originaux in'edits^ Paris, 
1876. See also Sparks, Diplomatic Correspondence of 
the American Revolution^ 12 vols., Boston, 1829-30; 
Trescot's Diplomacy of the American Revolution^ N. Y., 
1852 ; Lyman's Diplomacy of the United States^ Boston, 
1826; Elliot's American Diplomatic Code^ 2 vols., 
Washington, 1834; Chalmers' Collection of Treaties^ 
1 vols., London, 1790; Lord Stanhope's History of 
England^ vol. vii., London, 1853 > Lecky's History of 
England^ vol. iv., London, 1882 ; Lord John Rus- 
sell's Memorials of Fox^ \ vols., London, 1853-57; 
421 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

Albemarle's Rockingham and his Contemporaries^ 2 vols., 
London, 1852; Walpole's Last "Journals^ 1 vols., 
London, 1859 ' Force's American Archives^ 4th series, 
6 vols., Washington, 1839-46 ; John Adams's IVorks^ 
10 vols., Boston, 1850-56; Rives's Life of Madison^ 
3 vols., Boston, 1859—68 ; Madison's Letters and 
Other Writings^ \ vols., Phila., 1865; the lives of 
Franklin, by Bigelow and Parton ; the lives of Jay, 
by Jay, Flanders, and Whitelocke ; Morse's fohn 
Adams ^ Boston, 1885; Correspondence of George IIL 
with Lord Norths 2 vols., London, 1867; Wharton's 
Digest of International Law^ Washington, 1887, Ap- 
pendix to vol. iii. ; Hale's Franklin in France^ 2 vols., 
Boston, 1888. The view of the treaty set forth in 
1830 by Sparks, according to which Jay and Adams 
were quite mistaken in their suspicions of the French 
court, we may now regard as disposed of by the evi- 
dence presented by Circourt and Fitzmaurice. It has 
led many writers astray, and even with all the lights 
which Mr. Bancroft has had, the account in the last 
revision of his History of the United States^ vol. v., 
N. Y., 1886, though in some respects one of the best 
to be found in the general histories, still leaves much 
to be desired. 

The general condition of the United States under 
the articles of confederation is well sketched in the 
sixth volume of Bancroft's final revision, and in Cur- 
tis's History of the Constitution^ 2 vols., N. Y., 1 86 1. 
An excellent summary is given in the first volume of 
Schouler's History of the United States under the Con- 
stitution,, of which vols, i.— V. (revised ed., N. Y., 
1894) have appeared. Mr. Schouler's book is sug- 
gestive and stimulating. The work most rich in de- 
422 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

tails is Professor McMaster's History of the People of 
the United States^ of which the first volume rather 
more than covers the period 1783-89. The author 
is especially deserving of praise for the diligence with 
which he has searched the newspapers and obscure 
pamphlets of the period. He has thus given much 
fresh life to the narrative, besides throwing valuable 
light upon the thoughts and feelings of the men who 
lived under the " league of friendship." I take plea- 
sure in acknowledging my indebtedness to Professor 
McMaster for several interesting illustrative details. 
Further general information as to the period of the 
Confederation may be found in Morse's admirable 
Lfe of Alexander Hamilton^ 3d ed., 2 vols., Boston, 
1882; Sumner's Alexander Hamilton^ N. Y., 1890 ; 
J. C. Hamilton's Republic of the United States^ 7 vols., 
Boston, 1879; Frothingham's Rise of the Republic^ 
Boston, 1872, chapter xii.; Von Hoist's Constitutional 
History^ 8 vols., Chicago, 1877-92, chapter i. ; Pit- 
kin's History of the United States^ 2 vols.. New Haven, 
1828, vol. ii.; Marshall's Life of Washington^ 5 vols., 
Phila., 1805-07 ; Journals of Congress^ 13 vols., Phila., 
1800 ; Secret Journals of Congress^ 4 vols., Boston, 
1820-21. 

On the loyalists and their treatment, the able essay 
by Rev. G. E. Ellis, in Winsor's seventh volume, is 
especially rich in bibliographical references. See also 
Sabine's Loyalists of the American Rerolution^ 1 vols., 
Boston, 1864; Ryerson's Loyalists of America^ 2 vols., 
Toronto, 1880; Jones's New York during the Revolu- 
tion^ 2 vols., N. Y., 1879. Although chiefly con- 
cerned with events earlier than 1780, the Journal and 
Letters of Samuel Curwen^ 4th ed., Boston, 1864, and 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

especially the Diary and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson^ 
2 vols., Boston, 1884—86, are valuable in this con- 
nection. 

For the financial troubles the most convenient gen- 
eral survey is to be found in A. S. Bolles's Financial 
History of the United States^ 1774-1789, N. Y., 1879; 
Sumner's The Financier and the Finances cf the Ameri- 
can Revolution^ 2 vols., N. Y., 1891 ; Sparks's Life 
of Gouverneur Morris^ 3 vols., Boston, 1832; Pela- 
tiah Webster's Political Essays^ Phila., 1791 ; Phillips's 
Colonial and Continental Paper Currency^ 2 vols., Rox- 
bury, 1865-66 ; Varnum's Case of Trevett v. Wceden^ 
Providence, 1787 ; Arnold's History of Rhode Island^ 
2 vols., 4th ed.. Providence, 1894. The best ac- 
count of the Shays rebellion is G. R. Minot's History 
of the Insurrections in Massachusetts ^V^ oxz^%X.^x^ 1788; 
see also Barry's History of Massachusetts^ 3 vols., Bos- 
ton, 1855-57; Austin's Life of Gerry ^ 2 vols., Bos- 
ton, 1828-29. A new and interesting account of the 
northwestern cessions and the Ordinance of 1787 is 
B. A. Hinsdale's Old Northwest,^. Y., 1888; see 
also Dunn's Indiana^ Boston, 1888 ; Cutler's Life^ 
fournal^ and Correspondence of Manas s eh Cutter^ 2 vols., 
Cincinnati, 1887 ; Poole's The Ordinance of i']8j^ 
Cambridge, 1876. 

In the "Johns Hopkins University Studies in Histori' 
cal and Political Science^ the following articles bear 
especially upon subjects here treated and are worthy 
of careful study: II., v., vi., H. C. Adams, Taxation 
in the United States^ 1789-1816; III., i., H. B. 
Adams, Maryland's Influence upon Land Cessions to the 
United States; III., ix., x., Davis, American Constitu- 
tions ; IV., v., Jameson's Introduction to the ConstitU' 
424 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

t'lonal and Political History of the Individual States; 
IV., vii.-ix., Shoshuke Sato's History of the Land 
^e St ion in the United States ; VIII., i., ii., A. W. 
Small, 7'he Beginnings of Jmerican Nationality ; IX., 
i. ii., Willoughby's Government and Administration of 
the United States. 

For the proceedings of the Federal Convention in 
framing the Constitution, and of the several state 
conventions in ratifying it, the great treasure-house 
of authoritative information is Elliot's Debates in the 
Conventions^ 5 vols., originally published under the 
sanction of Congress in 1830-45 ; new reprint, Phila., 
1888. The contents of the volumes are as fol- 
lows : — 

I, Sundry preliminary papers, relating to the ante- 
revolutionary period, and the period of the 
Confederation ; journal of the Federal Con- 
vention ; Yates's minutes of the proceedings ; 
the official letters of Martin, Yates, Lansing, 
Randolph, Mason, and Gerry, in explanation 
of their several courses ; Jay's address to the 
people of New York ; and other illustrative 
papers. 
II., III., IV. Proceedings of the several state con- 
ventions; with other documents, including the 
Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798, 
and data relating thereto. 
V. Madison's journal of debates in the Congress 
of the Confederation, Nov. 4, 1782-June 21, 
1783, and Feb. 19-April 25, 1787; Madi- 
son's journal of the Federal Convention ; let- 
ters from Madison to Washington, Jefferson, 



425 



BIBLIOGRAPFHCAL NOTE 

and Randolph, Sept. 1787-Nov. 1788; and 
other papers. 

The best edition of the "Federalist" is by H. Co 
Lodge, N. Y., 1888. See also Story's Commentaries 
on the Constitution^ 4th ed., 3 vols., Boston, 1873 ; 
the works of Daniel Webster, 6 vols., Boston, 1851 ; 
Hurd's Theory of our National Existence^ ^o^ion^ 1881. 
The above works expound the Constitution as not a 
league between sovereign states but a fundamental 
law ordained by the people of the United States. 
The opposite view is presented in The Republic of Re- 
publics^ by P. C. Centz [Plain Common Sense, pseu- 
donym of B. J. Sage of New Orleans], Boston, 1881 ; 
the works of Calhoun, 6 vols., N. Y., 1853-55 ; A, 
H. Stephens's IVar between the States^ 2 vols., Phila.^ 
1868 ; Jefferson Davis's Rise and Fall of the Confed- 
erate Government^ 2 vols., N. Y., 1881. Bledsoe, Is 
Davis a Traitor; or, IVas Secession a Constitutional Right 
previous to the War of 186 1? Baltimore, 1866. 

Several volumes of the " American Statesmen '* 
contain interesting accounts of discussions in the vari- 
ous conventions, as Tyler's Patrick Henry^ Hosmer's 
Samuel Adams^ Lodge's Hamilton^ Magruder's Mar- 
shall^ Roosevelt's Morris. Gay's Madison falls far 
below the general standard of this excellent and popu- 
lar series. No satisfactory biography of Madison has 
yet been written, though the voluminous work of W. 
C. Rives contains much good material. For judicial 
interpretations of the Constitution one may consult 
B. R. Curtis's Digest of Decisions^ 1790-1854; Flan- 
ders's Lives of the Chief Justices^ Phila., 1858; Mar- 
shall's Writings on the Federal Constitution., ed. Perkins, 
Boston, 1839; see also Pomeroy's Constitutional Law^ 
426 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

N. Y., 1868; Wharton's Commentaries^ Phila., 1884; 
Von Hoist's Calhoun^ ^o?>\.on^ 1882. Among critical 
and theoretical works, Fisher's Trial of the Constitution^ 
Phila., 1862, and Lockwood's Abolition of the Presi- 
dency^ N. Y., 1884, are variously suggestive ; Wood- 
row Wilson's Coyigressional Government^ Boston^ 1885, 
is a work of rare ability, pointing out the divergence 
which has arisen between the literary theory of our 
government and its practical working. Walter Bage- 
hot's English Constitution^ revised ed., Boston, 1873, 
had already in a profound and masterly fashion, ex- 
hibited the divergence between the literary theory and 
the actual working of the British government. Some 
points of weakness in the British system are touched 
in Albert Stickney's True Republic, N. Y., 1879 ; and 
his Democratic Government, N. Y., 1885 ; see also A. 
L. Lowell's Essays on Government, Boston, 1 890. The 
constitutional history of England is presented, in its 
earlier stages, with prodigious learning, by Dr. Stubbs, 
3 vols., London, 1873-78, and in its later stages by 
Hallam, 2 vols., London, 1842, and Sir Erskine May, 
2 vols., Boston, 1862-63; see also S. R. Gardiner's 
Introduction to the Study of English History, London, 
1 88 1; Freeman's Growth of the English Constitution^ 
London, 1872; Co?nparative Politics, London, 1873; 
Some Impressions of the United States, London, 1883; 
Rudolph Gneist, History of the English Constitution, 2 
vols., London, 1886; J. S. M'lW, Representative Gov- 
ernmenty N. Y., 1862; Sir H. Maine, Popular Gov- 
ernment, N. Y., 1886; Tocqueville's Democracy in 
America, 2 vols., Cambridge, 1863 ; Bryce's American 
Commonwealth, 2 vols., N. Y., 1888; Lecky's Demo* 
cracy and Liberty, 2 vols., N. Y., 1876. 
427 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

See also Stevens's Sources of the Constitution of the 
United States^ N. Y., 1 894; Fisher's Evolution of the 
Constitution of the United States,, Phila., 1897 ; Jame- 
son, Essays in the Constitutional History of the United 
States,, Boston, 1889 ; Cooley (and others). Constitu- 
tional History of the United States as seen in the Devel- 
opment of American Law,, N. Y., 1889 ; Curry, The 
Southern States of the American Union,, N. Y., 1894; 
Stanwood's History of Presidential Elections,, Boston, 
1888 ; Miss Follett, The Speaker of the House of Re- 
presentatives,,^. Y., 1896; Harding, The Contest over 
the Ratification of the Federal Constitution in Massachu- 
setts,,^. Y., 1896; Houston's Critical Study of Nulli- 
fication in South Carolina,, N. Y., 1896. 

Much detailed information maybe found in Henry's 
Life,, Correspondence,, and Speeches of Patrick Henry,, 3 
vols., N. Y., 1891 ; Lee's Life of Richard Henry Lee,, 
2 vols., Phila., 1825; Madison's Papers,, etc, gA. Gil- 
pin, 3 vols., N. Y., 1841 ; Tyler's Letters and Times 
of the Tylers,, vols, i., ii., Richmond, 1884-85, vol. iii., 
Williamsburg, 1897; Conway's Edmund Randolph,, 
N. Y., 1888 ; Conway's Life of Thomas Paine., 2 vols., 
N. Y., 1892; Grigsby's History of the Virginia Fed- 
eral Convention (Va. Hist. Soc. Coll., N. S., ix., x.) ; 
Miss Rowland's Life., Correspondence,, and Speeches of 
George Mason,, 2 vols., N. Y., 1892; Miss Rowland's 
Life of Charles Carroll of Carrollton., 2 vols., N. Y., 
1897 i McRee's Life of James Iredell^ 2 vols., N. Y. 
1857 ' Stille's Life and Times of John Dickinson^ Phila., 
1 89 1 ; McMaster and Stone, Pennsylvania and the Fed- 
ral Constitution., Phila., 1888; Miss Boudinot's Life 
of Elias Boudinot,, 2 vols., Boston, 1896; Miss Mor- 
ris's Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris,, 2 vols., 
428 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

N. Y., 1888 ; King's Life and Correspondence of Ru° 
fus King^ vols, i.— iv. issued, N. Y., 1894—97, two 
more to come; Jay's Correspondence and Public Papers^ 
4 vols., N. Y., 1890-93; Wells's Life of Samuel 
Adams^ 3 vols., Boston, 1865 ; Austin's Life of Gerry ^ 
2 vols., Boston, 1828—29; Parson's Memoir of The- 
Qphilus Parsons^ Boston, 1859; Belknap's Minutes of 
the Convention of iy88 (Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc, 1858) ; 
Federal Convention of Massachusetts. Debates ., Resolu- 
tions^ etc., Boston, 1788; Debates and Proceedings in the 
Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts held in 
the year ijSS^ Boston, 1856; Staples, Rhode Island in 
the Continental Cbw^rt-j-j, Providence, 1870; Walker, 
New Hampshire Federal Convention.^ Boston, 1888; 
Ford, Pamphlets on the Constitution.^ Brooklyn, 1892. 

A monograph of profound interest and indispensa- 
ble to a correct understanding of the subject is Libby, 
The Geographical Distribution of the Vote of the Thir- 
teen States on the Federal Constitution.^ Madison, Wis., 
1894. 

I may also mention my own books, American Poli- 
tical Ideas.^ N. Y., 1885; Civil Government in the 
United States .^Boston., 1890; and my articles, " Great 
Britain," " House of Lords," and " House of Com- 
mons," in Lalor's Cyclopedia of Political Science., 3 
vols., Chicago, 1882-84. That cvclopaedia contains 
also numerous articles on American history by the 
late Prof. Alexander Johnston. One must stop some- 
where, and I will conclude by saying that I do not 
know where one can find anything more richly sug- 
gestive than those articles of Professor Johnston, in 
whose premature death our country has sustained an 
irreparable loss« 

429 



MEMBERS OF THE FEDERAL CON- 
VENTION 

The names of those who for various reasons were 
absent when the Constitution was signed are given in 
italics ; the names of those who were present, but re- 
fused to sign, are given in small capitals. 



New Hampshire . 
Massachusetts 

Connecticut . 
New York . . . 
New Jersey , , 

Pennsylvania . 



John Langdon. 
Nicholas Oilman. 
Elbridge Gerry. 
Nathaniel Gorham. 
Rufus King. 
Caleb Strong. 

William Samuel Johnson. 
Roger Sherman. 
Oliver Ellsworth, 
Robert Tates. 
Alexander Hamilton. 
yohn Lansing. 
William Livingston. 
David Brearley. 
William Churchill Houston,, 
William Paterson. 
Jonathan Dayton. 
Benjamin Franklin. 
Thomas Mifflin. 
Robert Morris. 
George Clymer. 
Thomas Fitzsimmons. 
Jared Ingersoll. 



MEMBERS OF FEDERAL CONVENTION 



Delaware . 



Maryland . 



Virginia . 



North Carolina 



South Carolina 



Georgia . 



James Wilson. 

Gouverneur Morris. 

George Read. 

Gunning Bedford. 

John Dickinson. 

Richard Bassett. 

Jacob Broom. 

James McHenry. 

Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, 

Daniel Carroll. 

'John Francis Mercer, 

Luther Martin. 

George Washington. 

Edmund Randolph. 

John Blair. 

James Madison. 

George Mason. 

George Wythe. 

"James McClurg. 

Alexander Martin. 

William Richardson Davie, 

William Blount. 

Richard Dobbs Spaight. 

Hugh Williamson. 

John Rutledge. 

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 

Charles Pinckney. 

Pierce Butler. 

William Few. 

Abraham Baldwin. 

William Pierce. 

William Houston, 



431 



MEMBERS OF FEDERAL CONVENTION 

Of those who signed their names to the Federal 
Constitution, the six following were signers of the 
Declaration of Independence : — 

Roger Sherman, 
Benjamin Franklin, 
Robert Morris, 
George Clymer, 
James Wilson, 
George Read. 

And the five following were signers of the Articles 
of Confederation : — 

Roger Sherman, 
Robert Morris, 
Gouverneur Morris, 
John Dickinson, 
Daniel Carroll. 

The ten following were appointed as delegates to 
the Federal Convention, but never took their seats : — 

New Hampshire . . John Pickering. 

Benjamin West. 
Massachusetts . . Francis Dana. 
New Jersey . . . John Nelson. 

Abraham Clark. 
Virginia .... Patrick Henry (declined). 
North Carolina . . Richard Caswell (resigned). 

Willie Jones (declined). 
Georgia , . , . George Walton. 

Nathaniel Pendleton. 

No delegates were appointed by Rhode Island. In 
a letter addressed to "the Honourable the Chairman 
of the General Convention," and dated " Providence, 



MEMBERS OF FEDERAL CONVENTION 

May II, 1787," several leading citizens of Rhode 
Island expressed their regret that their state should not 
be represented on so momentous an occasion. At the 
same time, says the letter, " the result of your delib- 
erations . . . we still hope may finally be approved 
and adopted by this state, for which we pledge our 
influence and best exertions." The letter was signed 
by John Brown, Joseph Nightingale, Levi Hall, Philip 
Allen, Paul Allen, Jabez Bowen, Nicholas Brown, 
John Jinkes, Welcome Arnold, William Russell, Jere- 
miah Olney, William Barton, and Thomas Lloyd 
Halsey. The letter was presented to the Convention 
on May 28th by Gouverneur Morris, and, " being read, 
was ordered to lie on the table for further considera- 
tion." See Elliot's Debates^ v. 125. 

The Constitution was ratified by the thirteen states, 
as follows : — 



I. 


Delaware . . . 


Dec. 6, 1787. 


2. 


Pennsylvania. . 


Dec. 12, 1787. 


3- 


New Jersey . . 


Dec. 18, 1787. 


4- 


Georgia . 


Jan. 2, 1788. 


5. 


Connecticut . 


Jan. 9, 1788. 


6. 


Massachusetts 


. Feb. 6, 1788. 


7- 


Maryland . . . . 


April 28, 1788. 


8. 


South Carolina . 


May 23, 1788. 


9- 


New Hampshire . 


June 21, 1788. 


10. 


Virginia . 


June 25, 1788. 


II. 


New York . . , 


July 26, 1788. 


12. 


North Carolina . 


Nov. 21, 1789. 


13- 


Rhode Island 


. May 29, 1790. 



433 



PRESIDENTS, CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 



PRESIDENTS OF THE CONTINENTAL 
CONGRESS 

1. Peyton Randolph of Virginia . Sept. 5, 1774. 

2. Henry Middleton of South Caro- 

lina ....„.., Oct. 22, 1774. 
Peyton Randolph .... May 10,1775. 

3. John Hancock of Massachusetts May 24, 1775. 

4. Henry Laurens of South Caro- 

lina Nov. I, 1777. 

5. John Jay of New York . . Dec. 10, 1778. 

6. Samuel Huntington of Connecti- 

cut Sept. 28, 17790 

7. Thomas McKean of Delaware July 10, 1781. 

8. John Hanson of Maryland . Nov. 5, 1781. 

9. Elias Boudinot of New Jersey . Nov. 4, 1782. 

10. Thomas Mifflin of Pennsylvania Nov. 3, 1783. 

11. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia Nov. 30, 1784. 

12. Nathaniel Gorham of Massa- 

chusetts June 6, 1786. 

13. Arthur St. Clair of Pennsylvania Feb. 2, 1787. 

14. Cyrus Griffin of Virginia . . Jan. 22, 17880 



GENERAL INDEX 

TO THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS 



The volumes covered by this index ?re as follows : -= 

I, 2, 3. The Discovery of America. 

4, 5. Old Virginia and her Neighbours. 

6. The Beginnings of New England. 

7, 8. The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America 

g. New France and New England. 

10, II. The American Revolution. 

12. The Critical Period of American History, 



GENERAL INDEX 

TO THE HISTORICAL WRITINGS 



For capes, forts, lakes, and treaties, see these words. For surnames ')?>■ 
ginning with the preposition da, de, H'. or van, see the name following the 
prefix. For maps and their n-i-'^ers, see under Geography. For minor 
titles, omitted from the General Index, see the separate indexes. 



Abbot, Gii-orge, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, interest in Virginia, 
4. 80. 

Abbott, C. C, palaeolithic discov- 
eries, I. 9, II n. 

Abenaki Indians. See Norridgewock. 

Abercrombie, James, arrives with 
Loudoun, 9. 306 ; expedition 
against Ticonderoga, 317-325. 

Aborigines in America, I. 5-15 j and 
the Indians, i 7, 18 n. 

Acadia, annexed to Massachusetts, 6. 
344; Monts's colony, 8. 395, 9. 
50-58 5 meaning of the word, 
50 ; Monts sells, 76 ; restored to 
France, 92, 97 ; Alexander's 
grant, 93 ; contest between La 
Tour and D'Aunay, 93-96 5 
conquest by New England, 96 ; 
Temple's grant, 96 ; passes finally 
to England, 234 ; extent, 234, 
249. See also Port Royal. 

Adam of Bremen, his Historia Eccle- 
Wrfir/Va and Vinland, i. 240-2445 
Columbus's knowledge of his work, 
2. 60-62. 

Adams, John, defends the soldiers in 
Boston Massacre trial, 10. 86 ; on 
destruction of the tea, 108; dele- 
gate to Congress, 124, 155 ; sug- 
gests Washington as commander- 
in-chief, 159 ; chief justice of 



Massachusetts, 185; resolution for 
formation of state governments, 



214 



Ivocates independence, 



224 ; on committee to draft De- 
claration of Independence, 227 j 
on fall of Ticonderoga, 310 ; dis- 
trusts the army, II. 375 criticises 
Washington's military policy, 42 ; 
on conduct of the British anci 
American armies, 137 n. ; peace 
envoy, 12. 26 ; dislikes the 
French, 26 ; and the separate ne- 
gotiation, 27 ; credit for the nego- 
tiation, 41 ; Minister to Great 
Britain, 164 ; threatens trade re- 
prisals, 166-168 ; begs money for 
Congress, 185-187; and the 
Tripolitan envoy, 191 ; vice-pre- 
sident, 417. 
Adams, Samuel, on the stamp duty, 
10. 19 ; Stamp Act declaration, 
26; on taxation and representation, 
55; decides for independence, 63, 
67; ^c'wd'eAr letters, 70 ; attempts 
to arrest for treason, 70, 140— 
143 ; in Boston Massacre episode, 
81 ; inaugurates committees of 
correspondence, 92, 93 ; connec- 
tion with Boston Tea Party, 100- 
107 ; circular letter on the Port 
Bill, 121 ; manoeuvres election of 
delegates to Congress, 123 j at- 



437 



GENERAL INDEX 



tempt to corrupt, 140 5 joy al 
outbreak of war, 145 5 exempted 
from offer of amnesty, 161 5 urges 
independence, 186; answers Qua- 
kers' objections to the Revolution, 
219 ; on the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, 229, II. 251 ; relation 
to the Conway Cabal, 40-42 5 
and the half-pay measures, 12. 
1355 opposes pardon of Shays in- 
surgents, 218 5 attitude towards 
the Constitution, 381, 391-393, 
396 5 loss of public favour, 415- 

417- 
Adirondacks, Algonquin Indians, I. 

52, 9. 43, 63. 
Adobe brick, criterion of barbarism, 

1. 36 ; use in pueblos, 98—100. 
Africa, ancient theories on circum- 

navigability, I. 340-342 5 ancient 
voyages along coast, 342—348 5 
Mela's map, 349 5 Portuguese 
voyages on western coast, 371 — 
375 5 circumnavigated, 381 ; ori- 
gin of name, 2. 369 n. ; Dieppe 
traders on western coast, Q. 2. 

Agriculture, and horticulture, I. 
57 5 Peruvian, 3. 11 3-1 16, 122, 
169 ; in Virginia, 4. 270-272, 
5. 2, 203-205 ; in New Eng- 
land, 36 5 in Maryland, 3135 in 
North Carolina, 366 5 in South 
Carolina, 380, 381 5 in the Neth- 
erlands, 7. 15 ; in New Nether- 
land, 188, 197, 198. See also 
Manors, Tobacco. 

Aguado, Juan, royal agent to Hayti, 

2. 174, 307 ; credentials, 308 n. 
Ailly, Pierre d', Imago Mundi, 2. 46 ; 

at Saint Die, 361. 
Alaminos, Antonio de, Spanish pi- 
lot, in Cordova's expedition, 3. 

31- 

Albany, N. Y., French fur-traders' 
blockhouse on site, 7. 79, 92 ; 
Fort Nassau built, 123 5 first set- 
tlement, 135 5 pre-Revolutionary 
importance, 241, 8. 66; called 
Beverwyck, 7. 243 j named, 8. 



I 5 and Leisler, 223, 227, 420; 
in 1765, 317-320. 

Albany Congress, plan of union, 5. 
446, g. 280, 10. 9-1 3 5 purpose, 9. 
279, 10. 8 5 attendance, 9. 279. 

Albemarle, Duke of. See Monk. 

Albemarle colony. See North Car- 
olina. 

Albigenses, crusade against, 6. 46, 
7. 44, 8. 394 5 survivals, 7. 

47- 

Alcantara, Martinez de, half brother 
of Pizarro, in Peru, 3. 212, 236. 

Alexander VI., pope, donation to 
Spain, 2. 141 5 bull of demarca- 
tion, 142-148. 

Alexander (Wamsutta), Wampa- 
noag chief, death, 267. 

Alexander,James,Jacobite, 8. 290 n.j 
Zenger's counsel, 291, 292. 

Alexander, Sir William, grant of 
Nova Scotia, g. 93. 

Alexander, William, called Lord 
Stirling, at battle of Long Island, 
10. 243; taken prisoner, 244; 
exchanged, 254. 

Alfragan, Arabian astronomer, influ- 
ence on Columbus, 2. 51 n. 

Algonquins, Indian group, culture 
status, I. 35, 52, 57; location 
and tribes, 51, 4. 341, 5. 67, 6. 
147, 7. 205, 9. 42-44; reduced 
by Iroquois, I. 56 ; friendship ne- 
cessary to the French, g. 63, 64. 
See also Indians. 

AUefonsce, Jean or Jehan, Rober- 
val's lieutenant, voyage on North 
American coast, 3. 325, 7. 79, 
89, 9. 27 ; purpose, 24, 28 ; mis- 
taken ideas of voyage, 25 ; narra- 
tive, 26 ; death, 32. 

Allegiance in the Revolution, Lord 
Howe's proclamations, lO. 267, 
365 ; Washington's counter-pro- 
clamation, 276 ; in occupied terri- 
tory, II. 138 n., 202; British 
proclamations in the South, 202, 
217, 2x8. 

Allen, Ethan, Oracles of Reason^ 10. 



438 



GENERAL INDEX 



153 ; captures and commands Ti- 
conderoga, 153, 154. 

Alliacus, Petrus. See Ailly. 

Allouez, Claude, Jesuit missionary, 
explores Lake Superior, g. loi ; 
hears of the Mississippi, 106 ; ora- 
tion to the Indians, 108. 

Almagro, Diego, partnership for ex- 
pedition to Peru, 3. 206 5 char- 
acter, 206 5 in first expeditions, 
207-209 ; dislike of Pizarro's 
brothers, 212 5 in Peru, 220, 
226-230 ; executed, 230 ; sup- 
porters kill Pizarro, 235. 

Almagro the lad, proclaimed gover- 
nor of Peru, 3. 236 } defeat and 
execution, 237. 

Altona, Dutch province in Delaware, 
5. 162. 

Alvarado, Pedro de, called Tonatiuh 
by the Aztecs, 3. 28 n. ; in Gri- 
jalva's expedition, 34 ; grudge 
against Grijalva, 36 5 precipitates 
conflict with Aztecs, 78-81 ; in 
Peru, 225 5 and Las Casas, 299. 

Amazon River, Pinzon's discovery, 
2. 322 5 Orellana's voyage, 3. 
233 ; origin of name, 234 n. 

Amazonian Indians, 3. 95. 

America, antiquity of man in, I. 5- 
15 5 former connection with Old 
World, 17 ; peopled from Old 
World, 17, 245 as a field of 
archaeological study, 43-45, 67, 
1 70 ; discovery from Greenland 
inevitable, 204 ; unrecorded pre- 
Columbian voyages, 291 ; bar- 
renness of pre-Columbian voyages, 
292-296 ; great step toward dis- 
covery, 321 5 prophecies of dis- 
covery, 2. 36 n., 43, 44; discov- 
ery an evolution, 133, 398, 3. 
386-388 ; relation of Columbus 
and Cabral to discovery, 2. 325 ; 
naming, 359, 366, 369, 371-398 ; 
realization of a western hemi- 
sphere, 385, 413, 418, 450, 3. 
327 ; progress of discovery, 29 ; 
discovery as a unique event, 387 ; 



earliest English reference to name, 
4. 155 considered the Devil's do- 
main, g. 144. See a/so Geogra- 
phy, Indians, North America, 
South America, Vinland, Voyages. 

Americans, self-restraint, 12. 278. 

Amherst, Sir Jeffry, English com- 
mander-in-chief in America, g, 
317; expedition against Louis- 
burg, 329-332 ; plan of campaign 
for 1759, 344; advance on Ti- 
conderoga, 347 ; fails to support 
Wolfe, 348 ; captures Montreal, 

3.59- 

Amidas, Philip, reconnoitring voy- 
age with Barlow, 4. 37. 

Amnesty, Gage's offer, 10. 161. 
See a/so Allegiance, Conciliation. 

Anahuac, no empire, 3. 5 n. 

Andagoya, Pascual de, voyage toward 
Peru, 3. 206. 

Andastes, Susquehannocks, g. 48. 

Andre, John, corresponds with Ar- 
nold, II. 257 ; meeting with Ar- 
nold, 261-266 « arrest and execu- 
tion, 267, 273-281. 

Andringa, Joris, Dutch governor of 
New York, 8. 38. 

Andros, Sir Edmund, governor of 
Virginia, 5. 137; quarrel with 
Blair, 138 ; removed, 139 ; gov- 
ernor of Jersey, 139; character, 
6; 334,, 8- 43, 4^, 112, 165; 
viceroy in America, 6. 334, 8. 
205 ; tyranny, 6. 336-339, 8. 
206, g. 202 ; overthrown, 6. 
340, 8. 208 ; early life, 44 ; 
arrival in New York as governor, 
45 ; and the oath of allegiance, 
46—48 ; and the demand for re- 
presentation, 49-51 ; interest ir 
New York city, 51—53 j and 
New England in 1675, 53-58, 
67, 70, 71 ; conference with the 
Iroquois, 62-65, g. 103; estab- 
lishes board of Indian commission- 
ers, 8. 66 ; and King Philip's 
War, 67-71 ; knighted, 71 ; and 
the New Jersey settlements. 



439 



GENERAL INDEX 



109-111, 163-165; complaints 
against, 195. 

Anian, mythical strait, 3. 383 n. 

Animals, pleistocene, I. 15 ; domes- 
tic, as criterion of barbarism, 32 5 
domestic, introduced by Europe- 
ans, 32, 253, 2. 151, 1545 no 
domestic, left in Vinland, i, 252- 
255; domestic, in Peru, 3. 113 5 
influence of cattle on social devel- 
opment, 1 1 7-1 20; etymological 
influence of catde, 120 n. ; in 
Virginia, 5. 2. 

Annapolis, Md., founded, 4. 366; 
the seat of government, 5. 140, 
188. 

Annapolis, N. S. See Port Royal. 

Annapolis Convention, 12. 255- 
257. 

Anne Arundel town. See Annapo- 
lis, Md. 

Antarctic explorations, 2. 331, 7. 

Antilia, fabulous island, 2. 50. 

Antilles, first appearance of name, 2. 
236. 

Antinomian episode in Massachusetts, 
6. 142-145, 8. 118 5 and the 
Great Awakening, g. 228. 

Antipodes, Cosmas on, i. 307 ; 
Mela on, 353 ; and Ceylon, 354. 
See alsn New World. 

Apache Indians, i. 47. 

Appleton, Samuel, in attack on Nar- 
ragansett stronghold, 6. 283. 

Aquedneck, R. I., settlements, 6. 
146, 201. 

Aranda, Count, Spanish envoy, pro- 
phecy on America, 12. 22. 

Araucanians, 3. 96, 232. 

Archaeology, importance of Ameri- 
can, I. 43-45, 170. See also 
Aborigines, Indians. 

Archdale, John, Quaker governor of 
Carolina, 5. 340. 

Archer, Gabriel, enmitv to Captain 
John Smith, 4. 146 ; return to 
Virginia, 178. 

Architecture, relation to culture, I. 



35 ; social basis of Indian, 77, 
See also Houses. 
Arctic explorations, 7. 63-65, 96, 
100, 107. See also Northwest 



Argall, Samuel, arrives in Virginia, 
4. 168 ; brings supplies, 190 ; 
seizes Pocahontas, 198 5 attacks 
the French at Mount Desert, 201, 
9- 77-79 j destroys Port Royal, 
4. 201, g. 79 ; at Manhattan, 4. 
201, 7. 119; deputy-governor, 
4. 204; charges against, 215 ; 
removed, 2185 knighted, 218; 
royal commissioner to investigate 
Virginia, 254 ; seeks to become 
governor, 283. 

Ari Thorgilsson (Frodhi), first Ice- 
landic historian, works, i. 236 j 
mentions Vinland, 237-239. 

Arickarees, Indian group, I. 50. 

Aristotle, on earth's shape and west- 
ern route to Indies, 2. 41. 

Arlington, Earl of, grant of Virginia, 
5- 6z, 

Armada, Spanish, effect of destruc- 
tion, 3. 394, 395, 4. 46, 5. 
440, 6. 72 ; defeat, 4. 42-44. 

Armed Neutrality. See Neutrality. 

Armstrong, John, at Brandyvvine, 

10. 367, 370 5 at Germantown, 

374- 

Armstrong, Major John, Newburgh 
address, 12. 129. 

Army, American, in the Revolution: 
efficiency of minute men, 10. 148; 
Congress adopts, 156; Washing- 
ton commands, 157, 173 ; con- 
dition before Boston, 160, 173, 
1 81-18 3 ; personnel of the com- 
mand, I 74-1 8 1 ; hardships in in- 
vasion of Canada, 195; condition 
in New York campaign, 223, 
239 ; winter quarters in New Jer- 
sey, 275 5 foreign volunteers, 283; 
unorganized condition, 283-286, 

11. 315 state jealousy in, 10. 
286 ; reorganization of state troops, 
288 ; United States troops, 289; 



440 



GENERAL INDEX 



congressional mismanagement, il. 
33 5 Valley Forge, 34; poJitical 
appointments, 35-38 5 Conway 
Cabal, 40-55 ; Steuben trains, 
62—65 j value of light infantry, 
65 5 compared with the British, 
136 n.-l39 n. ; plan to arm ne- 
groes, 206 j partisan commanders, 
220—223 5 condition of southern, 
225 ; condition in 1780, 240- 



242, 



mutiny. 



S-292 



backwoods militia, 294 ; general 
furlough, 12. 60 5 disbanded, 61 5 
compared with Civil War army, 
120-123 ; feared, 125, 133, 
140 ; question of half-pay, 126- 
128, 132, 134; Newburgh ad- 
dress, 129-132; troops drive 
away Congress, 1335 order of the 
Cincinnati, 136-139. See also 
battles and commanders by name. 

Army, British, in the French and 
Indian war : Braddock 's force, g. 
281 ; ignorant of Indian warfare, 
283 5 Johnson's force, 296 ; rank 
of colonial officers, 308 5 Aber- 
crombie's force, 318 ; force 
against Louisburg, 329 ; Forbes's 
force, 337; in 1759, 343- 

In the Revolution : troops in 
Boston, 10. 67, 82, 116, 1325 
difficult to recruit, 188 ; German 
troops hired, 189 ; conduct in 
New Jersey, 276 5 Burgoyne's 
arm.y, 314; Indian auxiliaries, 
314, 322, 335 ; desertions, II. 
81 ; marauding expeditions, 132 ; 
compared with American, I36n.- 
139 n. 5 dependence on the navy, 
142. See also battles and com- 
manders by name. 

Army, French, in French and In- 
dian war : force sent over with 
Dieskau, g. 281 5 character of 
the Indian allies, 308, 310, 313- 
315 ; at Quebec, 350. 

In the Revolution : arrives, II. 
245; march to Virginia, 334; 
share in Yorktown campaign, 3425 



returns to France, 12. 60. See 
also Rochambeau. 

Army, standing, colonial, in New 
York, 8. 304 ; advised for the 
colonies, 10. 175 Samuel Adams 
on, 70 ; question of quartering, 
67, 115 5 Warren's address on, 
139; feared, 189, 284,11. 32, 
12. 384. 

Arnold, Benedict, joins American 
army, 10. 149 ; expedition against 
Ticonderoga, 152-155 5 captures 
St. John's, 1545 character, 175, 
181, 1985 invasion of Canada, 
194—197 ; resists Carleton's inva- 
sion, 292-295 5 military reputa- 
tion, 295 5 and Congress, 296, 
343, II. 248 5 suffers for friend- 
ship with Schuyler, 10. 301 ; de- 
feats Tryon at Ridgefield, 304 ; 
major-general, 304 5 relieves Fort 
Stanwix, 344-346 ; in Saratoga 
campaign, 382-389 ; commands 
Philadelphia, ii. 248 ; charges 
against and reprimand, 249, 253— 
258 ; betrothal and marriage, 250, 
255 ; dislikes French alliance, 
252 ; influenced by moderate loy- 
alists, 252 ; opens correspondence 
with Clinton, 256 ; and Monk, 
258 ; treason and flight, 259- 
273 ; attempt of Americans to get 
possession of, 276 ; in the British 
army, 281-284, 301, 338 5 in 
England, 283, 285 ; family, 284 5 
death, 286 ; and Charles Lee, 
286. 

Arrapaho Indians, l. 51. 

Articles of Confederation, adoption, 
II. 31, 12. Ill 5 author, iii ; 
interstate relationship under, 112; 
provisions, 112-117; fatal de- 
fects, 117-120, 167, 170; fail- 
ure of impost amendment, 258- 
261. See also Union. 

Arundel of Wardour, Lord, interest 
in Virginia, 4. 66. 

Asbury, Francis, Methodist preach- 
er, 12. loi J bishop, 102. 



441 



GENERAL INDEX 



Ashburton, Lord, in Rockingham's 
ministry, 12. 6. 

Ashe, Samuel, commands North 
Carolina militia, ii. 203 5 de- 
feated at Briar Creek, 204. 

Ashley, Sir Anthony, interest in 
Virginia, 4. 81. 

Asia, seat of human race, I. 4 ; ab- 
sorbs external interest of Europe, 
300-303, 323 5 visited by Nes- 
torian missionaries, 309 ; Marco 
Polo's contribution to knowledge 
of, 328 ; myths, 329-331 ; ori- 
gin of name, 2. 367 n.-369 n. 

^ See also North America and coun- 
tries by name. 

Assemblies, colonial, strife with royal 
and proprietary governors, 5. 175- 
178, 352, 433-439,442,442 n.- 
445 n., 8. 18, 250-252, 266, 
278-280, 284, 285, 305, 9. 
242, 262, 272, 273, 277, 285, 
10. 16, 12. 785 retained in State 
governments, 77, 80. See also 
House of Burgesses. 

Astrolabe, necessaiy to systematic 
ocean navigation, i. 297; intrj- 
duction, 362 j Behaim improves, 

2. 73- 

Atahualpa, usurping Inca, 3. 129, 
213, 241. See also Peru. 

Athabaskans, Indian group, i. 47. 

Attiwendaronk Indians, g. 48, 49. 

Aubert, Thomas, alleged voyage, 7. 
68, 9. 4-6. 

Augusta, Ga., during the Revolu- 
tion, II. 202, 204, 220, 318. 

Aunay Charnisay, Charles, Seigneur 
d', contest with La Tour in Aca- 
dia, 94-96 5 widow marries La 
Tour, 96. 

Avalon, Baltimore's province in 
Newfoundland, 4. 300, 305-308 ; 
fate, 312. 

Avila. See Gonzalez Pedrarias. 

Ayllon, Lucas Vasquez d', search for 
northwest passage, 3. 321 ; at- 
tempted colony in Virginia, 321, 
4. 109 n. i death, 3. 321. 

442 



Aymaras, Peruvians, 3. 125. 

Azores, Islands, visited by Portu- 
guese, I. 369; colonized, 374 f 
Columbus at, 2. 1 24. 

Aztecs, Me.xican Indians, culture, !„ 
25> 36, 39-41, 118 n., 142, 3. 
172-176 j confederacy, I. 118- 
121, 3. 14; tribal organization, 
I. 121, 124-127, 130-133, 3. 
72-74, 81 j communism, I. 122 5 
clan, 122, 123 ; phratry, 123 ; 
head of confederacy, 127; collec- 
tion of tribute, 133 ; compared 
with Iroquois confederacy, 135; 
priesthood, 136 ; human sacrifice, 
136-138 ; no caste, 136 n. 5 
slavery, 139; kinship through 
male, 140 ; marriage, 141 ; pri- 
vate property, 142 5 criticism of 
Morgan's views concerning, 143— 
1505 at Tollan, 3. 9; relation 
to Toltecs and Chichimecs, 9-1 1 ; 
chiefs and wars, 13-16 5 folk-lore 
of god guetzalcoatl and advent of 
Spaniards, 20, 29, 41, 42, 78 j 
method of warfare, 45 n. See also 
Mexicans, Mexico City. 

Aztlan, situation, 3. 8. 



Baccalaos, early name for Newfound- 
land, 2. 237. 

Bacon, Nathaniel, of King's Creek, 
relation with his kinsman the rebel, 
5. 74, 79, 8y, 102 n., X05. 

Bacon, Nathaniel, the rebel, early 
hfe, 5. 74; councillor, 75 5 char- 
acter, 75, 103 5 unauthorized at- 
tack on the Indians, 76 5 anest 
and submission, 77-81 ; flight, 
87 ; forces a commission from the 
governor, 87, 88 5 subdues the 
Indians, 88, 95 ; proclaimed a 
rebel, 89 ; counter-manifesto, 90- 
94; policy, 94-100, 112-118, 
1 21-124 5 captures and burns 
Jamestown, 1 01-103 ; plunders 
the aristocrats, 103-105 5 death, 
105 5 collapse of the rebellion, 
107 ; character and fate of his 



GENERAL INDEX 



followers, I07-IIO, 1 1 9-1 21 ; 

as a historical figure, 12.5. 
Bacon, Roger, on westwaid route to 
Asia, I. 32.2, 2. 45 5 and the 
compass, l. 361 j and Imago 
Mundiy 2. 52 n.-54 n. 
Bacon's rebellion, causes, 5. 52- 
87, 112-1255 progress and col- 
lapse, 87— III ; significance, m; 
and Shays's, 123. 
Badajos congress, 3. 318. 
Baffin, William, search for north- 
west passage, 3. 381. 
Balboa, Vasco Nunez de, discovers 
Pacific Ocean, 2. 415,3. 187^ 
escapes from creditors, 182 5 in 
command at Darien, 183, 185, 
187; and his enemies, 185, 187, 
189, 191, 194-196; and Peru, 
187, 189, 192-194; character, 
192, 198 ; executed, 197. 
Baldwin, Abraham, and the Con- 
necticut compromise, 12. 297. 
Baltimore, Lord. See Calvert. 
Baltimore, Md., growth, 5. 314. 
Bandelier, F. A., researches on 

Mexican society, I. 117, 118 n. 
Bannocks, Indian group, I. 47. 
Baptists, persecution in Massachu- 
setts, 6. 216-224, 225 n. ; and 
in New Netherland, 7. 269 ; 
Seventh Day, 8. 408 ; profit by 
the Great Awakening, g. 231. 
Barbarism, and savagery, i. 29-31 ; 
three periods and the Indians, 32— 
37, 136; and civilization, 38; 
value of the term, 42 ; exempli- 
fication in America, 43-45 ; in;- 
portance of middle period, 140 ; 
history of the word, 376 n. 
Barbary States, piracy and blackmail, 
5. 396, 12. 188-192; charac- 
ter, 187. 
Barbastro, Luis de, in Tuzulutlan, 3. 

298; death, 341. 
Bardsen, Ivar, on Greenland, i. 

184 n., 202, 275. 
Barentz, William, voyages in Arctic 
Ocean, 3. 378, 7. 64. 

443 



Barlow, Arthur, reconnoitring voy* 
age, 4- 37- 

Barnwell, John, defeats the Tusca- 
roras, 5. 354, 355. 

Barons' war, importance, 6. 36. 

Barre, Isaac, and colonial resistance, 
10. 27, 70-72, 112. 

Barter, in Peru, 3. 171 ; post- Revo- 
lutionary revival, 12. 196. 

Baum, Friedrich, Hessian officer, at 
Bennington, 10. 329, 332. 

Baxter, George, and Stuyvesant, 7. 
^97, 299, 310, 311, 313. 

Baxter, Joseph, and Rale, g. 239. 

Bay of All Saints, Brazil, Vespucius 
names, 2. 329, 330 n. ; mistake 
on early maps, 329 n., 348. 

Bayard, Nicholas, ancestry, 7. 231 ; 
and the Leisler rebellion, 210, 
216, 219, 220, 231, 237; ac- 
cused of complicity with pirates, 

267, 268 ; convicted for treason, 
276 ; release, 277. 

Beaujeu, at Fort Duuqesne, g. 288— 
290 ; death, 290. 

Beaumarchais, P. A. C. de, Ver- 
gennes's secret agent, 10. 280. 

Beckford, William, member of Par- 
liament, advice on colonial affairs, 
10. 38, 71. 

Bedford, Gunning, member of the 
Federal Convention, on equal state 
representation, 12. 296. 

Behaim, Martin, improved astro- 
labe, 2. 73 ; globe, 344, 345 n.; 
career, 344 n. 

Bellingham, Richard, treatment of 
Quakers, 6. 232. 

Bellomont, Lord, and Kidd, 8. 264, 

268, 269, 273 ; character, 265 ; 
governor of New York, Massa- 
chusetts, and New Hampshire, 
266; favours the Leislerians, 266- 
268 ; death, 274. 

Bennett, Richard, Puritan leader in 
Virginia, 4. 354 ; in Maryland, 
365 ; parliamentary commissioner, 
368-370, 372; governor of Vir« 
ginia, 368. 



GENERAL INDEX 



Bennington, Vt., battle, lo. 328- 
334, II. 298 

Bering, Vitus, voyages, 3. 383- 
385 ; death, 385. 

Berkeley, Lord, grant of New Jer- 
sey, 5. i»7, 8. 12; a proprietor 
of Carolina, 5. 317 ; sells New 
Jersey, 8. 19. 

Berkeley, Sir William, father, 4. 80; 
governor of Virginia, 297 5 and 
the Puritans, 355, 356, 365 ; 
subdues Indians, 357 ; resigns gov- 
ernorship, 368 5 assembly elects 
him governor, 5. 23 ; receives 
royal commission, 25 5 character, 
63-67 5 corrupt administration, 
65, 92-94; long assembly, 66, 
77 ; and the Indian troubles, 72— 
74 , and Bacon's rebellion, 76- 
81, 87-89, 101-103, 107-1.10; 
ordered to England, no; death, 
III ; interested in Virginia, 129; 
on education, 286 ; a proprietor 
of Carolina, 317 ; severs Albe- 
marle from Virginia, 323. 

Bermudas, Vespucius at, 2. 279, 
314 n., 4.175; Gates and Som- 
ers wrecked on, 175 ; named, 
175 ; superstitions concerning, 
176; Somers dies at, 190 ; to- 
bacco monopoly, 285. 

Bernaldez, Andres, on Columbus, 2. 

4, II, 177 n. 
Bernard, Francis, governor of Massa- 
chusetts, advises colonial consoli- 
dation, 10. 6; and the assembly, 
16 ; and colonial resistance, 56, 
57, 61, 68; recalled and knighted. 

Berry, Sir John, royal commissioner, 

5. 107, III. 
Bethencourt, Jean de, colony in Ca- 
naries, I. 370, g. 2. 

Beverley, Major Robert, opposes Ba- 
con, 5. 104, 107 ; clerk of as- 
sembly, 127 ; and the royal com- 
missioners, 127 ; order for re- 
moval revoked, 129; more trou- 
bles, 132, 133. 



Beverly, Robert, historian, en sla- 
very in Virginia, 5. 227; on Vir 
ginians, 243 ; as a historian, 
297. 

Bible, translated by Wyclif, 6. 50 ; 
influence on English life and liter- 
ature, 62-65 5 Puritan method of 
interpreting, 180 ; reading, en- 
forced, 182; Indian translation, 
257 ; Erasmus's edition, 7. 21 5 
dissemination in the Netherlands, 
21. 

Biblioteca Colombina, 2. 3. 

Biencourt, son of Poutrincourt and 
Port Royal, g. 72, 75, 79; 
death, 93. 

Bill of rights, absence of, an objec- 
tion to the Constitution, 12. 376, 

394- 
Bimini, Indian reference to island of, 

.3-.3I5- 

Bjarni Grimolfsson, goes to Vinland, 
I. 192 n. ; fate, 194 n. 

Bjarni Herjulfsson, viking, sees 
strange lands, I. 186. 

" Blackbeard." See Thatch. 

Blackfeet, Algonquin Indians, I. 5 1. 

Blackstock Hill, S. C, battle, il. 
299. 

Blackstone, William, settled on site 
of Boston, 6. III. 

Blackwellj Francis, attempt to settle 
Pilgrims in Virginia, 6, 95. 

Blair, James, ecclesiastical commis- 
sioner in Virginia, 5. 135, 305; 
founds William and Mary College, 
135-137; president, 137; quar- 
rels, 138, 142,454- 

Blake, Joseph, governor of South 
Carolina, 5. 340, 

Blanca, Count Florida, abolishes In- 
dian slavery, 3. 303 ; American 
intrigues, 11. 163-166. 

Bland, Giles, Bacon's lieutenant, 5. 
loi, 121. 

Bland, John, memorial on Naviga- 
tion Act, 5. 54-59. 

Block, Adrian, on coast of New 
England, 7. 120. 

444 



GENERAL INDEX 



Block Island, ravaged, 6. 157; dis- 
covered, 7. 75, 

Blockade, British doctrine, li. 180 j 
Catherine's proclamation, 182. 

Bloody Brook, Mass., massacre, 6. 
277. 

Blue Laws, legendary, 6. 166, 

Blunt, Tom, Tuscarora chief, 5. 

353- 

Bobadilla, Francisco de, royal agent 
in Hayti, 2. 192-195 5 death, 
ao2. 

Bogardus, Everardus, second clergy- 
man in New Netherland, arrives, 
7. 1685 character, 189; and 
Kieft, 228 5 drowned, 237. 

Bohemia, claim of influence on 
America, 7. 38. 

Bohemia Manor, Md., 5. 164; Lab- 
adist settlement, 165. 

Bois, Louis du, leads Walloon emi- 
gration, 8. 397- 

Bon Homme Richard, American 
ship, equipment and crew, 11. 
150, 154 j battle with the Sera- 
pis, 154-159- 

Bonnet, Stede, the pirate, 5. 429- 

Boone, Daniel, pioneer in Kentucky, 
II. 116, 122. 

Boonesborough, Ky., founded, 1 1. 
122. 

Boroughs in Virginia, 4. 220, 265- 
268. 

Boscawen, Edward, expedition against 
Louisburg, g. 329. 

Boston, Mass., settler on site, 6. 
Ill ; founded, 127 ; during King 
Philip's war, 279 ; population in 
1675, 323 ; town meeting on 
surrender of charter, 3325 rela- 
tions with Andros, 336 ; establish- 
ment of a post with New York, 8. 
21-25 ; Huguenot settlers, 401 ; 
witchcraft cases, 9. 146-149, 
152-155 ; writs of assistance epi- 
sode, 10. 14 ; town meeting on 
stamp duty, 19 5 reception of 
Stamp Act, 21 j Stamp Act riots. 



27 ; riot over Hancock's sloop 
and impressment, 60 5 vilified in 
England, 61 j troops to coerce, 
62, 116, 132 j quartering of 
troops, 67-70 ; behaviour of 
troops, 76 5 " Massacre," 77— 
87 5 commemorations of it, 87, 
139 5 town meeting on tea ques- 
tion, 100 5 reception and destruc- 
tion of the tea, 100-107; Port 
Bill, 112, 116, 121 ; Regulation 
Act defied, 125 ; hardships, 139 ; 
siege begins, 148 ; progress of 
siege, 160, 187; British evacu- 
ate, 199-202 ; instructs for inde- 
pendence, 214. See also Massa- 
chusetts. 
Botetourt, Lord, governor of Virginia, 

10. 75- 
Boudinot, Elias, Huguenot ancestry, 
8. 405 ; on Washington at Mon- 
mouth, II. 80 n. 
Boundaries, London and Plymouth 
companies, 4. 71-74, 6. 90 ; 
Maryland and Pennsylvania, 5„ 
168,8. 172-1745 conflicting, 4. 
337, 5- 166, 6. 109, 112, 114, 
126, 190; Massachusetts, 114 5 
New Netherland, 7. 122; settle- 
ment of Connecticut and New 
York, 8. 5-7 5 line between East 
and West Jersey, 163 ; Vergennes 
desires to limit United States, 11. 
164 ; in treaty of 1783, 12. 21- 

23, -9» 39- 
Bourlamaque, Chevalier de, evacuates 

Ticonderoga, g. 347. 
Bowdoin, James, ancestry, 8. 401 ; 

and Shays's rebellion, 12. 214, 

215, 218. 
Boyle, Bernardo, apostolic vicar for 

the Indies, 2. 151 ; abets disorders 

in Hayti, 171. 
Braddock, Edward, sent to America, 

g. 281 ; preparation to march 

against Fort Duquesne, 283, 285 ; 

character, 283 5 underestimates the 

Indians and militia, 283-285, 

287; march and defeat, 286-292.1 



44 S 



GENERAL INDEX 



death, 292 ; retreat of his forces, 
292. 

Bradford, Andrew, son of William, 
printer in Philadelphia, 8. 376 5 
American Magazine, 376. 

Bradford, William, of Plymouth, in 
Scrooby congregation, 6. 865 
governor of Plymouth, 86, 100 ; 
history of Plymouth, 86, 351 ; in 
Holland, 88 ; sails for America, 
98 5 discussion with Minuit, 7. 

143- 

Bradford, William, New York news- 
paper, 8. 290 ; first printer in 
Philadelphia, 375. 

Bradstreet, Anne, verses, 6. 326, 
327 n. 

Bradstreet, John, English colonel, 
ability, 9. 333 ; captures Fort 
Frontenac, 334. 

Bradstreet, Simon, governor of Mas- 
sachusetts, 6. 326, 341. 

Brandywine Creek, Penn., battle, 
10. 366-371. 

Brant,Joseph (Thayendanegea), Mo- 
hawk chief, aids the British in the 
Revolution, 10. 335, 338, ll. 
104, 109-111, 113 ; contrasts of 
character, 101-104; not at Wy- 
oming massacre, 109. 

Brattle, Thomas, liberal views, g. 

203 5 gives land for Brattle 
Church, 204. 

Brattle Church, Boston, founded^ 9. 
204 ; conditions of membership, 

204 5 recognized, 206. 

Brazil, Ojeda's expedition, 2. 319; 
Pinzon's expedition, 321 ; Lepe's 
voyage, 322 5 Cabral takes pos- 
session for Portugal, 323 ; called 
Vera Cruz and Santa Cruz, 324 5 
Vespucius's expedition, 327 5 and 
early use of term America, 379, 
381 ; why so named, 382 ; 
Huguenot colony in, 3; 342, 9. 
33 ; Dutch in, 7. 62. 

Brazil, fabulous island, 2. 50 n., 
215, 3. 356; origin of name, 

a. 383- 



Brearley, David, member of the Fed* 
eral Convention, 12. 2.71 ; on 
equal state representation, 293. 

Brent, Giles, deputy-governor of 
Maryland, 4. 359 ; manor, 5, 
170. 

"Brethren of the Coast," bucca- 
neers, 5. 403, 405. 

Brewster, William, early life, 6. 
81 ; becomes Separatist, 85 ; in 
Holland, 88 5 sails for America, 
98. 

Breym-ann, H. C, Hessian colonel, 
at Bennington, 10. 330, 333 ; 
killed at Freeman's Farm, 388. 

Briar Creek, Ga. , battle, 1 1 . 204. 

Brinton, D. G., translator of Maya 
documents, i. 159. 

Bristol, England, maritime adventures 
from, 2. 215, 217. 

Brittany, France, race characteristics, 
9. I ; mariners, 2 ; early interest 
in Newfoundland fisheries, 3 ; ob- 
jects to trade monopoly in Canada, 

36, 57- 

BrockhoUs, Anthony, lieutenant- 
governor of New York, 8. 45 ; 
and the custom duties, 195. 

Brodhead, Daniel, devastates Indian 
country, il. 129. 

Brooke, Lord, grant in Connecticut, 
6. 150, 7. 176. 

Brooke, Robert, Maryland priest, 
reprimanded, 5. 192. 

Brookfield, Mass., Indian attack, 6. 

273- 

Brooklyn, N. Y., beginnings, 7. 
135, 201 ; in 1679, 8. 89. 

Brooklyn Heights, L. I., strategic 
importance, 10. 242 5 American 
troops withdrawn, 246—248. See 
also Long Island battle. 

" Brother Jonathan," lO. 239 n. 

Browne, Robert, leader of Separat- 
ists, 6. 79 ; recants, 81. 

Browne, Thomas, loyalist com- 
mander at Augusta, reprisals, II. 
204. 

Brownists. See Separatists. 



446 



GENERAL INDEX 



Buccaneering, origin of name, 5. 
405. See also Piracy. 

Buckingham, Duke of, member of 
Council for New England, 6. 
ic8. 

Buford, Abraham, American colonel, 
defeated at Waxhaws, II. 216. 

Bull, Thomas, and Andros at Say- 
trook, 8. 56. 

Bunker Hill battle, 10. 161-172. 

Burgoyne, John, British general, 
sent to Boston, 10. 134 ; part as- 
signed in invasion of New York, 
307; advance, 3145 captures 
Ticonderoga, 315 ; underestimates 
his enemy, 317; obstructed 
march, 319 ; lack of loyalist sup- 
port, 321 5 employs and misun- 
derstands Indians, 322 ; Jane 
McCrea episode, 324-328 ; battle 
of Bennington, 328-334; critical 
situation, 347, 380,- 386 ; aban- 
doned by Howe, 361 ; battles of 
Freem.an's Farm, 381-390; sur- 
rounded, 390 ; Clinton's move to 
aid, 391 ; surrender, 392—395 ; 
on Schuyler, 396 ; Congress re- 
pudiates the convention, 397— 
401 ; paroled, 401 ; in Parlia- 
ment, 401, II. 67; end of his 
army, 10. 401. See also Howe 
(William), St. Leger. 

Burke, yEdanus, opposition to the 
Cincinnati, 12. 138. 

Burke, Edmund, Old Whig, 10. 
48 ; colonial policy, 70, 71, 112, 
131 ; favours independence, 11. 
7, 12. 2 ; paymaster, 6 ; opposes 
parliamentary reform, 7 ; on sla- 
very, 84. 

Burlington, N. J., founded, 8. 166, 

Burnet, William, governor of New 
York, character, 8. 286 ; fur- 
trade reforms, 286-289 ; builds 
fort at Oswego, g. 262, 

Burroughs, George, executed for 
witchcraft, g. 168, 173, 183. 

Butler Nathaniel, governor of Ber- 



muda, charges against Virginia, 4. 
245-251. 

Butler, John, loyalist colonel, 10. 
335, II. 107, III. 

Butler, Waiter, loyalist officer, 11. 
109, III. 

Butler, Zebulon, in Wyoming val- 
ley, II. 1065 at the massacre, 

Buttrick, JohfpT major of minute 

men, at Concord, 10. 145. 
Butts Hill, R. I., seized by Sullivan, 

II. 92 ; British attack, 96. 
Bylandt, Count, Dutch admiral, 

affair with Fielding, 11. 180. 
Byllinge, Edward, interest in New 

Jersey, 8. 19, 162. 
Byrd, William, the elder, 5. 299. 
Byrd, William, the historian, library, 

5. 285 ; career, 300; as a writer, 

30C-302. 

Cabeza de Vaca, Alvar Nunez, Span- 
ish explorer, adventures among the 
Indians, i. 289, 3. 331. 

Cabo de Arenas, identification, 7. 
85-87. 

Cabot, John, early life, 2. 214 ; 
voyages for England, 217-220; 
errors in narrative of voyages, 222; 
chart, 223 ; course and parts vis- 
ited, 223-230, 7, 78 ; fruitless- 
ness of voyages, 2. 230, 238, 4. 
^3? 7' ^7 j ultimate results, 2. 
232. 

Cabot, Sebastian, son of John, 2. 
214; in father's voyages, 217, 
220 ; later career, 220 ; governor 
of the Muscovy Company, 220, 
4. 16, 7. 93 ; map, 2. 223-225, 
230. 

Cabral, Pedro Alvarez de, accident- 
ally crosses ocean to Brazil, 2. 

323 ; takes possession for Portugal, 

324 ; proceeds to India, 324, 326 ; 
consequences of his adventure, 
326. 

Cacique. See Chief, Chief-of-men. 



447 



GENERAL INDEX 



Cadamosto, Luigi, Portuguese navi- 
gator, on coast of Africa, i. 374. 

Cadvvalader, Jolin, American gen- 
eral, at crossing of the Delaware, 
10. 269 ; duel with Conway, ll. 

55- 
Caen, Emery de, trade monopoly in 

Canada, g. 89 5 abolished, 90. 

Caesar, Sir Julius, interest in Virginia, 

4. 80. 

Calef, Robert, and Cotton Mather, 
g. 150 ; on the witchcraft trials, 
163 n., 186. 

California, Cortes discovers Lower, 
3. 332 ; Drake in, 377, 4. 32. 

Calvert, Benedict Leonard, fourth 
Lord Baltimore, minor governor 
of Maryland, 5. 1825 abjures Ca- 
tholicism, 196 ; succeeds to title 
and dies, 196. 

Calvert, Cecilius, second Lord Balti- 
more, grant of Maryland, 4. 312; 
character, 314, 5. 160, 1745 
never visits colony, 4. 314; ori- 
ginal features of his government, 
315-320; death, 323, 5. 1675 
on rights of legislation, 4. 332, 

5. 176; powers, 4. 3345 opposi- 
tion to his grant, 335, 338 5 and 
Claiborne, 340-343, 352; dur- 
ing the Commonwealth, 361 ; 
Toleration Act, 362-365 5 and 
the Puritan power in Maryland, 
37i-373» 5- 152,153 5 author- 
ity temporarily denied, 156-160. 

Calvert, Charles, third Lord Balti- 
more, governor of Maryland, 5. 
160 ; succeeds to the title, 167 5 
character, 174, 180 5 restricts the 
suffrage, 179 ; readiness to pro- 
claim William and Mary, 186 ; 
deprived of his government, 188 ; 
death, 196. 

Calvert, Charles, fifth Lord Balti- 
more, Protestant, 5. 196 ; palat- 
inate restored, 196 ; and the 
Catholics, 198 ; death, 200; 
will, 200. 

Calvert, Frederick, sixth Lord Balti- 



more, character, 5. 200 ; heir, 
201. 

Calvert, George, early life, 4. 299 ; 
Catholicism, 300 ; first Lord Bal- 
timore, 300 ; palatinate in New- 
foundland, 300, 305-308 ; in Vir- 
ginia, 308-310 ; grant of Mary- 
land, 310-312 ; death, 312; pur- 
pose in colonizing, 312, 318 j 
character, 313. 

Calvert, Leonard, governor of Mary- 
land, 4. 320; and Claiborne, 340— 
343, 35I;. 359-361 ; death, 361. 

Calvert, Philip, secretary of Mary- 
land, 4. 373, 374; and Fendall, 
5. 157; governor, 160; chan- 
cellor, 161. 

Calvin, John, character, 6. 67 ; po- 
litical bearing of his theology, 68- 

Calvinism, in South Carolina, 5. 3 775 
and public schools, 7. 37. See also 
Congregationalism, Presbyterian- 
ism, Puritans. 

Cam, Diego, Portuguese navigator, 
discovers Congo River, i. 375. 

Cambridge, Mass., named, 6. 134; 
assembly convened at, 10. 89 ; 
headquarters of American army 
besieging Boston, 149, 160, 173. 
See also New Town. 

Cambridge Platform, 6. 216. 

Cambridge University, England, dom- 
inated by Puritanism, 6. 73, 7. 44; 
graduates in New England, 6. 133. 

Camden, Lord, on colonial policy, 

10. 31 ; condemns hiring of Ger- 
man troops, 1 90; in Rockingham 
ministry, 11. 348, 12. 6. 

Camden, S. C, Gates's advance, 

11. 226-229 ; battle, 229-233 ; 
reoccupied by Americans, 317. 

Camm, John, wooing, 5. 148. 
Campbell, Sir Archibald, British 

colonel, captures Savannah and 

Augusta, 11. 202. 
Campbell, William, partisan, at 

King's Mountain, 11. 295, 296. 
Canada, Cartier's explorations, 3^ 



448 



GENERAL INDEX 



325, g. 13-225 attempted set- 
tlements, 3. 325, 9. 6, 22-24, 
29-325 first settlement, 3. 359, 
g. 60 5 policy of development, 3. 
359-361, 7. 149, 150, 9. 88, 
90, 1045 Indian relations, 7. 
112, 8. 58, 60, 200-202, 204, 
230, 248, 281, g. 62-71, 80, 
86-88, 102, 105, 239, 261- 
264, 309-311, 3405 attack on 
Schenectady, 8. 224-227 5 un- 
successful English expeditions 
against, 229, 281, 283 5 early ex- 
plorations, g. 5, 7 5 first use of 
name, 1 5 5 fur-trade monopoly, 
36-38, 49, 57, 59, 605 Cham- 
plain's voyages, 42, 60 5 change in 
Indian inhabitants, 42—44 5 Indian 
missionaries, 86, 89, 103 5 cap- 
tured by the English in 1628, 915 
restored to France, 92 5 inland ex- 
plorations, 98-101, 106, III- 
120 5 route to the interior, 1045 
possession taken of the Northwest, 
107-109 5 scheme of empire, 
120-122,132, 2585 Louisiana 
added to French possessions, 130 5 
irrepressible conflict with English 
colonies, 233, 2395 importance 
of Kennebec River to, 2345 policy 
against English settlements, 239, 
241 ; loss of the control of the 
Kennebec, 244 5 loss of Louis- 
burg in 1745, 249-^56; in the 
Ohio valley, 261-273 5 strategic 
points, 326 5 Pitt resolves to de- 
stroy, 54- 5 English conquer, 
358 5 boundaries under Quebec 
Act, 10. 115 5 strategic impor- 
tance, 1935 invasion in 1775, 



193-19! 



attitude toward the 



Revolution, 194, 198 5 French 
control not desired in United 
States, II. 54, 97 5 Estaing's pro- 
clamation, 97 5 cession asked and 
refused, 12. 11, 13. See a/so 
Acadia, French and Indian war, 
Newfoundland. 
Cana-y Islands, known to the an- 



cients, I. 348 5 visited by Portu* 
guese, 369 5 colonized, 370, g. 2. 

Canas, Peruvian tribe, 3. 123. 

Caniengas, Mohawks, g. 45. 

Cannibalism, in America, i. 59, 
137, 2. 327- 329, 4i3».3- 

62 n., 148, 8. 249 n. 5 oiigin 
of name, 2. 155 5 remnants, 3. 

63 n. 

Canonchet, Narragansett chief, 6. 
280, 284, 295. 

Canonicus, Narragansett chief, 6. 
and the Pilgrims, 104. 

Caonabo, Haytian chief, and the 
Spaniards, 2. 156, 173, 177 n. 

Cape Alpha and Omega, Cuba, Co- 
lumbus names, 2. 119. 

Cape Ann, Mass., named, 4. 104, 
5. 105 settlement, 6. 112. 

Cape Bojador, Africa, known, i. 
370 5 passed, 371. 

Cape Breton Island, Portuguese col- 
ony, 2. 236 5 named, g. 4. 

Cape Charles, Va., named, 4. 108. 

Cape Cod, Mass., named, 4. 65. 

Cape Fear River, N. C, visitors 
from New England, 5. 323 ; 
Yeamans's settlement, 324. 

Cape of Good Hope, passed, i , 381 ; 
named, 3825 Dutch colony, 7. 
60. 

Cape Gracias a Dios, Central Amer- 
ica, Columbus names, 2. 204. 

Cape Henlopen, Del., and Cabo de 
Arenas, 7. 85-875 named, 121. 

Cape Henry, Va., named, 4. 108. 

Cape Horn, discovered and named, 

3- 317, 3i9» 7» 65. 

Cape May, N. J., named, 7. 121. 

Cape Non, Africa, origin of name, 
I. 369 5 passed, 370. 

Cape St. Vincent, Portugal, naval 
battle, II. 169. 

Cape San Roque, named, 2. 327. 

Cape Verde, Africa, passed, i. 374. 

Cape Verde Islands, and the Phoeni- 
cians, I. 348 5 discovered, 374. 

Carey, Thomas, deputy-governor of 
Carolina, 5. 344 j and the <^ua- 



449 



GENERAL INDEX 



kers, 344, 34^ 5 rebellion, 346 5 
accused of inciting the Indians, 

Carib Indians, cannibals, 2. 155, 3. 
95 5 enslaved, 254. 

Carleton, Sir Guy, governor of 
Canada, 10. 193 ; at Quebec, 
196; invasion of New York, 
292—295 ; commander-in-chief, 

II- 347. 

Carolina, frontier country, 5. 315- 
317; named, 3175 grant, 317 ; 
Fundamental Consticutionsand gov- 
ernment, 319-322 j distinct set- 
tlements, 322-326, 3395 Baha- 
ma Islands annexed, 324 j end of 
proprietary government, 360 \ pi- 
rates, 42 1 . See also North Caro- 
lina, South Carolina. 

Carpini, John of Piano, missionary 
to Jenghis Khan, I. 320 5 in- 
creases geographical knowledge, 
321. 

Carr, Dabney, proposes intercolonial 
committees of correspondence, 10. 

Carr, Sir Robert, royal commissioner, 
y. 331 ; on the Delaware, 8. 45 
in Boston, 9 ; death, 11, 

Carrington, Edward, and the Ordi- 
nance of 1787, 12. 242. 

Carroll, Charles, proposed Catholic 
colony on the Mississippi, 5. 198. 

Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, on 
independence, 10. 221. 

Carroll, Daniel, member of the Fed- 
eral Convention, 12. 271. 

Carroll, [ohn, first Catholic bishop 
in United States, 12. 104. 

Cartagena, Juan de, with Magellan, 
2. 428, 431, 433, 436. 

Carteret, Sir George, grant of New 
Jersey, 5. 167, 8. 125 a proprietor 
of Carolina, 5. 3175 regrant of 
New Jersey, 8. 42, 108. 

Carteret, James, son of Sir George, 
8. 18, 97. 

Carteret, Peter, governor of North 
Carolina, 5. 327, 329. 



Carteret, Philip, as governor of New 
Jersey, 8. 13, 14, 185 relation- 
ship to Sir George, 97 n. ; and 
New York's claim to New Jersey, 
108-113. 

Cartier, Jacques, early career, g. 13 ; 
first voyage, 1 3 5 second voyage, 
145 at Stadacona, 15, 203 at 
Hochelaga, 16— 20; captain-gen- 
eral, 22 ; third voyage, 23 ; brings 
Roberval back to France, 31 ; 
death, 32. 

Cartwright, George, royal commis 
sioner, 7. 331 5 in Boston, 8. 8 ; 
captured by the Dutch, 8. 

Carvajal, Francisco de, lieutenant of 
Gonzano Pizarro, grim facetious- 
ness, 3. 240 ; executed, 240. 

Cary, Sir Henry, member of London 
Company, 4. 81. 

Caste, not in Mexico, I. 136 n. ; 
in Peru, 3. 124, 139. 

Castile. See Isabella, Spain. 

Castro, Vaca de, royal agent to 
Peru, 3. 236 5 defeats young Al- 
magro, 237. 

Caswell, Richard, commands North 
Carolina militia, defeats loyalists at 
Moore's Creek, 10. 208 ; joins 
Gates, II. 227; at Camden, 
231. 

Cathari. See Albigenses. 

Cathay, origin of name, I. 320. See 
also China. 

Catherine, empress of Russia, refuses 
to sell soldiers to George III., 10. 
189 ; interest in humanitarian 
movement, il. 175; England 
desires alliance, 175-178, 181 ; 
and doctrine of free ships, free 
goods, 178, 1825 in Armed 
Neutrality, 1 84 ; importance of 
her work, 185 ; refuses to aid 
Holland, 192-194. 

Catlin, George, American artist, on 
Mandan Indians, I. 49. 

Cato, leads negro insurrection, 5. 385. 

Cattigara, Ptolemy's antipodal city, 
reappearance in early maps of Nc« 

450 



GENERAL INDEX 



World, 2. 354, 355, 355 "-, 
381 n., 3. 327. 

Cauchis, Peruvian tribe, 3. 123. 

Caughnawaga, Canada, settlement of 
Christianized Iroquois, 8 286, 
289, g. 262. 

Cavaliers and Roundheads compared 
socially, 5. 11— 15, 32; emigra- 
tion to Virginia, 1 8-2 1 5 effect on 
Virginia, 27-29, 33, 114, 394. 

Cave men, progenitors of Eskimos, 
I. 19-23. 

Cavelier. See La Salle. 

Cavendish, Lord, member of London 
Company, 4. 243, 252. 

Cavendish, Lord John, on hiring of 
German troops, 10. 190 ; in 
Rockingham ministry, II. 348, 
12. 6 ; in coalition ministry, 53. 

Cavendish, Thomas, voyage around 
the world, 4. 39. 

Cayugas, Iroquois Indians, g. 45, 47. 
See also Iroquois. 

Cecil, Sir Robert, intrigues against 
Raleigh, 4. 64 5 heads London 
Company's members, 169. 

Celoron de Bienville, takes possession 
of Ohio valley for France, g. 264- 
267. 

Censors in Pennsylvania, 12. 178. 

Central America, Columbus on the 
coast, 2. 203 ; Vespucius on the 
coast, 272, 292 5 conquest, 3. 
90 ; voyages on west coast, 203, 

204 5 struggle over jurisdiction in, 

205 ; Las Casas's peaceful con- 
quest of Tuzulutlan, 292-300. 
See also Mayas. 

Champlain, Samuel, settles Quebec, 
3.. 3.59, 9- 60, 92 5 birth, 38 5 
religion, 39, 59, 81 ; character, 

3- 3 59, 9; 39, 5^, T-/-, i" the 
West Indies and Mexico, 40 5 
suggests a canal at Panama, 41 j 
and Pontgrave, 41 ; first voyage 
to Canada, 42 j on coast of New 
England, 52-55 ; greeting at Po.t 
Royal, 55 ; his knightly Order 
of Good Times, 5 7 j interest in 

45 



Canada, 58, 82 ; return to Can- 
ada, 60 ; makes alliance with Al- 
gonquins and Hurons, 62—64 j 
expeditions against the Iroquois, 
65-71, 80, 86-88 5 married, 80 ; 
founds Montreal, 81 5 viceregal 
lieutenant, 81 ; controls the fur- 
trade, 82 ; seeks the western sea, 
835 brings Recollets to Canada, 
86 ; defends Quebec against Kirke, 

91 ; sunenders, 92 ; governor, 

92 5 last days, 92. 
Cliancas, Peruvian tribe, 3. 126. 
Chandler, Thomas, on Marj-land 

clergy, 5. 190. 

Charles I. of England, relations with 
Virginia, 4. 279, 283-285, 294, 
349, 350 ; and Baltimore, 307, 
308, 311,318, 321, 342; relations 
with Massachusetts, 6. 116, 13 5- 
1385 character, 118 ; conflict with 
Parliament, 1 19-122. 

Charles II. of England, charters 
Hudson Bay Company, 3. 372 ; 
and Baltimore, 4. 361, 5. 159; 
Virginia's loyalty, 4. 366, 5. 
24-26, 62 ; land grants, 61 j 
comment on Berkeley, no; in- 
structions on suffrage, 118; 
knights Morgan, 416; relations 
with New England, 6. 243-249, 
317, 318, 325, 328, 7. 321 ; 
measures toward absolutism, 6. 
328-331, 8. 27, 40; and the 
naming of Pennsylvania, 175. 

Charles V. of Spain, and Las Casas, 
3. 284 ; issues the New Laws, 
301. 

Charles City Count)', Va., origin of 
its name, 5. 45 n. 

Charleston, S. C. , named for 
Charles II., 5. 3185 founded, 
3-5, 333 5 attacked by French 
and Spanish fleets, 341-343 ; 
focus of social life, 361, 383, 
387 ; trade, 381 ; trade with pi- 
rates, 423 ; action on tea question, 
10. 99, 108 5 futile British attack, 
232-235 ; Pre vest's advance and 

I 



GENERAL INDEX 



retreat, ll. 206, 2105 captured 

by Britiaii, 214-216. See also 

South Carolina. 
Charlestown, Mass., settled, 6. 1265 

fired by the British, 10. 165. 
Charlottesville, Va. , British prisoners 

quartered, 10. 401 j Tarleton's 

raid, II. 325. 
Charter Oak, 6. 335. 
Charters : Hudson Bay Company, 

3. 372 J Raleigh's, 4. 35, 36; 

Virginia, 71-73, 169-171, 2585 

Maryland, 311, 316-318, 5. 

188, 196 5 Massachusetts, 4. 315, 

6. 116, 332, 344, g. 202, 10. 

113; Pennsylvania, 5. 168, 8. 

176-178, 432-449 5 Carolina, 

5-318, 320,359; Georgia, 3915 

Rhode Island, 6. 190, 249, 335, 

342 ; Connecticut, 249, 335, 

342,7. 3205 Dutch West India 

Company, 129; of Privileges and 

Exemptions in New Netherland, 

154. See also Grants. 
Chase, Samuel, and independence, 

10. 221. 
Chatham, Earl of. See Pitt. 
Chauvin, Pierre, monopoly of the 

fur-trade, g. 36 ; death, 37. 
Cheesman, Edward, and Berkeley, 

5. 108. 
Cherokee Indians, I. 50 n., 1675 

mound builders, 166 ; during the 

Revolution, 11. 124. 
Cherry Valley, N. Y., massacre, il. 

109. 
Chesapeake Bay, character, 5. 239 n.; 

and Verrazano Sea, 7. 71—74, 

9. II. 
Chester, Penn., named, 8. 182. 
Cheyenne Indians, I. 51. 
Chibchas, Central American Indians, 

3. 92-94. 
Chichimecs, traditional people of 

Mexico, 3. 7, II. 
Chickasaw Indians, i. 50, 168. 
Chief, Indian military leader, of clan, 

I. 82 5 of tribe, 86 ; of Iroquois 

confederacy, 90 j European mis- 

45 



conception, iii, 127, 4. ill, 
133, 202 ; Mexican clan, i. 122. 
See also Chief - of- men, Inca, 
Sachem. 

Chief-of-men, Aztec military exe- 
cutive, I. 127, 130-133, 3. 
72-74. 

Child, Robert, in Presbyterian cabal, 
6. 213-215. 

Childs, James, founds free school in 
South Carolina, 5. 380. 

Chili, Peruvian invasion, 3. 128 5 
Almagro governor, 226 ; Spanish 
conquest, 232. 

Chimus, Peruvian tribe, 3. 126. 

China, early knowledge of, I. 304, 
309 ; accessible under Mongol 
empire, 320,^ 323-326, 332-3345 
effect of closing, 334-337. 

Chirihuanas, South American In- 
dians, 3. 158-160. 

Chittenden, Thomas, governor of 
Vermont, 12. 179. 

Choctaws, Maskoki Indians, i. 50. 

Cholula, Mexican pueblo, I. 107, 

3. 17 5 and Cortes, 49-52. 
Christiansen, Hendrick, at Manhat- 
tan, 4. 201, 7. 1 18, 120. 

Christison, Wenlock, Quaker, perse- 
cuted, 6. 240, 241. 

Church, Benjamin, in King Philip's 
War, 6. 281, 296, 297, 299. 

Church, Benjamin, corresponds with 
the enemy, 10. 180. 

Church of England, liberalism, 4. 
276, 6. 77 5 in Virginia, 4. 290, 
354-356, 5- 135,. 305-308, 

312, 12. 93-98 ; Puritans within, 

4. 353 ; established in Maryland, 

5. 188-192 ; established in South 
Carolina, 377; in Georgia, 393 ; 
origin, 6. 51 5 forbidden in Mas- 
sachusetts, 131, 3 1 8 5 royal or- 
der for toleration, 317, 323 5 first 
services in Boston, 336; establish- 
ment in the colonies, 12. 91 ; 
disestablished, 92 5 American con- 
nection after the Revolution, 
98-101. 

2 



GENERAL INDEX 



Church and State. See Religion. 

Cibola. See Zuni. 

Cieza de Leon, Pedro, chronicle on 

ancient Peru, 3. 104 n.— 107 n. 
Cincinnati, Ohio, early name, 12. 

233- 

Cincinnati, order of the, 12. 136- 
141. 

Cintra, Piedro de, Portuguese navi- 
gator, reaches Sierra Leone, I. 374. 

Cipango. See Japan. 

Circumnavigation of the earth, fir?t, 
2. 430-449 5 second, 3. 377, 4. 
30-33- 

Citizenship, Roman, 6. 155 inter- 
state, under articles of confedera- 
tion, 12. 112. 

Civil liberty, conception in sixteenth 
century, I. 280 ; spirit in the 
colonies, 4. 282, 5. 173, lO. 2-4, 
25 ; debt to Puritans, 6. 9, 43, 
59-61, 83, 308-3105 in Rome, 
14, 17 ; preserved by Germanic 
tribes, 20 5 essential to successful 
civilization, 27 5 Magna Charta, 
35 ; dangers from protection, 38 5 
fate depended on England, 43, 
53, 55 5 and French Revolution, 
56, 60 5 and union in United 
States, 56 5 dark outlook in 1629, 
122 ; antiquity of religious restric- 
tions on, 311, 8, 117 5 Andros 
attacks, 6. 3385 in the Nether- 
lands, 7. 28, 30-32, 262 ; in- 
compatible with despotic govern- 
ment of dependencies, lO. 305 
self-contradictor)' attitude of Eng- 
land in 1774, 116 5 declaration of 
rights in First Continental Con- 
gress, I 30 5 French thought on, 
279, II. 174; debt to Chatham, 
24—26 ; debt to the Revolution, 
349-351 5 Constitution and a bill 
of rights, 12. 376, 394-396. See 
a/so Government, Local self-gov- 
ernment, Religion, Representation, 
Zenger. 
Civilization, and barbarism, I. 38— 
41 J latent brute force, 6. 148, 



288. See also Culture, Nation" 
making. 
Claiborne, William, secretary of Vir- 
ginia, 4. 335 5 Kent Island affair, 

335.-343, 350-353,. 359-361 ; 
parliamentary commissioner, 368 j 
controls Maryland, 369, 370; 
land grants in Virginia, 373. 

Clan, earliest family group, I. 71 ; 
Indian, 76, 82, 87, 88, 91, 102, 
121-123, 140; gentilism and 
feudalism, 112— 114, 116 5 disin- 
tegration of Peruvian, 3. 156— 
161, 164. See also Family, 

Tribe. 

Clarendon colony, 5. 3245 aban- 
doned, 338, 339. 

Clark, G. R., character, 11. 126 ; 
conquest of the Northwest, 126- 
I 3 1 5 later life, 131. 

Clark, William, expedition to Ore- 
gon, 3. 376. 

Clarke, John, Baptist, persecuted in 
Massachusetts, 6. 216-222. 

Clayton, John, botanist, 5. 302. 

Clergy, Spanish, and Columbus's 
plans, 2. 95 n. &'e ^Ao Religion, 
and the sects by name. 

Cleveland, Benjamin, partisan, at 
King's Mountain, ll. 295, 297. 

Clinton, George, governor of New 
York, occupies Hackensack, 10. 
275 ; intercepts message to Bur- 
goyne, 392 5 power and policy, 
12. 172; opposition to the Con- 
stitution, 408. 

Clinton, Sir Henry, sent to Boston, 
10. 1345 in the South, 208, 
209, 232-235, II. 212-2185 
at battle of Long Island, 10. 243 j 
and Burgoyne, 385, 391, 392; 
commander-in-chief, 11. 68 j 
evacuates Philadelphia, 68, 69 j 
and Charles Lee, 70-72 ; at Mon- 
mouth, 74, 79 ; relieves Newport, 
96 ; corresponds with Arnold, 
2565 efforts to save Andre, 275 j 
and Cornwallis, 314, 324, 338, 
341 ; superseded, 347. 



453 



GENERAL INDEX 



Clinton, James, in Sullivan's expedi- 
tion, II. III. 

Coddington, William, settles at Ports- 
mouth, R. I., 6. 146. 

Coelho, Gon^alo, voyage to South 
America, 2. 402-407. 

Coke, Thomas, Methodist bishop, 
12. 102. 

Colden, Cadwallader, career, 8. 332 ; 
and the stamp riots, 10. 28. 

Coligny, Gaspard de, attempted Hu- 
guenot colonies, 3. 342, 4, 22, 8. 

395- 

Colleton, James, governor of South 
Carolina, 5. 335. 

Colleton, Sir John, a proprietor of 
Carolina, 5. 317. 

Colonies, Dutch, East Indian, 7. 57- 
60 ; in Brazil, 62 ; divergent 
views on policy in 1609, 113, 
116, See also New Netherland. 

Colonies, English, effect of defeat 
of Armada, 3. 394, 4. 46, 6. 
72 5 reasons for success, 3. 405, 
6. 169, 7. 147, 151, g. 104; 
Gilbert's attempt, 4; 335 Ra- 
leigh's attempt, 35-39, 41, 44- 
46 5 Hakluyt's reasons for plant- 
ing, 51-58 ; Zones, 745 become 
a policy, 6. 90 5 right of Crown 
to soil, 140, 332; Crown and 
parliamentary control, 141, 145, 
190, 194-196, 211, 243, 317, 
318,333, 344, 10. 38-41 5 non- 
English influences, 7. 34-39, 8, 
385, 414 } significance of the 
year 1609, 7. iii-ii 3 ; land 
purchases from the Indians, 8. 
1 8 7-1 9 1 5 unsuccessful expeditions 
against Canada, 229, 281, 283 ; 
strategic position of New York 
and Pennsylvania, 243-245 ; in- 

[ tercolonial relationship, 9. 278, 
10. 7 ; contribution to French 
and Indian war, 9. 343, lO. 17 ; 
relation with England from 1690 
to 1760, 1-5 5 political standards 
compared with the British, 18, 
84 J willing to grant aid to the 



empire, 20 ; purpose of the 
Townshend Acts, 36 ; reasons 
for attitude of George III., 50 j 
Dickinson on rights, 54 5 strength 
of, unappreciated, 65-67 ; local 
vexations, 89 5 courage of, depre- 
ciated in England, 118, 165; 
make common cause, 121 5 va- 
cillating policy of British ministry, 
133, ^34 5 attitude of middle 
colonies on question of war, 135— 
137; hesitate at offensive war, 
138,156, 193; general prepara- 
tion for war, i 50 5 political chaos 
in 1775, 184- ^^'^ "^'^'^ Conti- 
nental Congress, England, New 
England, Union, and colonies by 
name. 

Colonies, French, attempted Hugue- 
not, 3. 342-350J 4- 19--^ 9- 
335 cause of failure, 7. 149, 1505 
attempt at Sable Island, 9. 6. 
See also Acadia, Canada. 

Colonies, Portuguese, on Cape Bre- 
ton Island, 2. 236 5 in Brazil, 
4065 East Indian, 416-418. 

Colonies, Spanish, preparation for 
first, 2. 151, 154; attempted, in 
Veragua, 206, 207 5 on the main- 
land, 3. 178-185 j Las Casas's 
r tempt, 284-287 ; attempted in 
Virginia, 321 ; in Florida, 341, 
'^46 j character of American, 4. 
29. See also Hispaniola. 

Colonization, Europe not prepared for 
in 1000, I. 297-300. 

Columbus, Bartholomew, brother of 
Christopher, voyage with Dias, i. 
383, ii. 81, 81 n.-83 n. j ability, 
21 ; appearance, 23 n. 5 said to 
have suggested route to Indies, 
73 J in England and France, 84— 
88; in Hispaniola, 1695 Ade- 
lantado, l 70 ; as a governor, l 72 ; 
founds San Domingo, 176 ; im- 
prisoned and sent to Spain, 194; 
in Christopher's fourth expedition, 
200 5 puts down mutiny at Ja- 
maica, 208 ; and Cabot, 215 



454 



GENERAL INDEX 



Columbus, Christopher, sources of 
information on, 2. I— 105 writ- 
ings, 5 5 birth, family, and early 
life, 10-19; as a cartographer, 
19; in Lisbon, 19, 81-84; ^^~ 
peditions on coast of Africa, 22, 
57, 60; marriage, 22, 24; per- 
sonal appearance, 23 ; at Porto 
Santo, 24 ; plan takes shape, 24, 
38 ; correspondence with Tosca- 
nelli, 26-35, 38 n.-4i n. ; genesis 
of his scheme, 35, 37-40, 47, 
72 ; influence of Imago Mundi 
on, 46, 53 n.-55 n. ; knowledge 
of geographical theories, 46 n. ; 
calculation of size of earth and 
length of westward route to Indies, 
47, 51—56 ; sole purpose of his 
plan, 56, 67 ; treatise on the 
zones, 56 ; voyage to Arctic 
Ocean, 57-60 ; in England, 59 ; 
and Vinland, 60-72, 96 n , 104, 
112; Portugal rejects his plan, 
74—76 ; personal demands as to re- 
wards, 75, 96 ; Portugal attempts 
to forestall, 76 ; in Spain, 76, 
78 ; death of his wife, 77 ; said 
to have sought aid of Genoa and 
Venice, 78 ; negotiations and ar- 
rangement in Spain, 79, 88-100 ; 
and Beatriz de Arana, 80 ; did 
not sail with Dias, 82 n. ; sends 
Bartholomew to England, 84 ; 
starts for France, 90, 99 ; desires 
to deliver Jerusalem, 97, 103, 
131, 199, 4. 8; self-conscious- 
ness, 2. 98, 131, 199. 

First voyage : funds, 2. loi- 
103 ; cost 1 01 n. ; preparation, 
103; sails from Palos, 104; outward 
voyage, 104-I12; land sighted, 
113 ; take possession, 11 3-1 15 ; 
landfall, 115; cruises for Japan 
among the Bahamas, 116; discov- 
ers and coasts Cuba, 11 7-1 19; 
treachery of Martin Pinzon, 119, 
122, 126; at Hispaniola, 120; 
founds La Navidad, 122 ; return 
voyage, 122-125; in Portugal, 



125; reception at court, 127; 
coat of arms, 127 n., 210 ; belief 
that he had reached Asia, 128- 

130, 134, 162-167, ^05> 2.11} 

European interest in his discovery, 
135-140. 

Second voyage : equipment, 2. 
130, 151 ; funds, 150; Fon- 
seca's hatred, 152, 180; com- 
panions, 152; departure, 153; 
at the Canaries, 1 54 ; discovers 
Porto Rico, 154; at Hispaniola, 
154-158, 170-174; on southern 
coast of Cuba, 159, 161 ; discov- 
ers Jamaica, 160 ; believes Cuba 
to be Asian mainland, 162-167} 
makes crew swear to this belief, 
167, 293 n. ; circumnavigates 
Hispaniola, 169 ; thinks ^yispani- 
ola may be Ophir, 175 ; return 
voyage, 176; reception at court, 
177 ; invasions of his monopoly, 
178, 308-311. 

Third voyage: start, 2. 180; 
reasons for choosing a southern 
route, 181 ; in belt of calms, 182-. 
1 84 ; on coast of South America, 
184—188 ; speculation on earth's 
shape, 186; at San Domingo, 
189 ; attempts to restore order in 
Hispaniola, 189, 193 ; Fonseca's 
machinations, 190; dissatisfaction 
in Spain with results obtained, 192, 
307 ; imprisoned, 194 ; sent to 
Spain in irons, 195 ; reception at 
court, 195 ; not restored to office, 
297, 209. 

Fourth voyage : purpose, 2. 
198 ; equipment, 200 ; sails, 200 ; 
at San Domingo, 200-202 ; on 
coast of Central America, 203— 
207; at Jamaica, 207 ; relief and 
return to Spain, 208 ; possible in- 
fluence of Vespucius's first voyage 
on, 318. 

Death, 2. 209 ; last resting- 
place, 209; traditional motto, 210 } 
and the egg, 239 n. ; relation to 
Vespucius, 245, 358, 408 ; litiga- 



4S5 



GENERAL INDEX 



tlon over extent of his discoveries, 
267-270 5 and the name America, 
369, 387—3985 attitude toward 
Indian slavery, 3. 252-255. 

Columbus, Diego (Giacomo) brother 
of Christopher, birth, 2. 11 n. ; 
in brother's second expedition, 
1535 in charge of Hispaniola, 
158; mutiny against, 1 70 ; and 
Bobadilla, 193 ; imprisoned and 
sent to Spain, 194. 

Columbus, Diego, son of Christopher, 
birth and early years, 2. 77, 90, 
93, 94 n., 191 5 marriage, 266 5 
claims, 266-270, 3. 177-179 ; 
governor of the Indies, 3. 29, 
177 ; conquers Cuba, 274. 

Columbus, Ferdinand, natural son of 
Christopher, biography of his fa- 
ther, 2. I, 4-8, 374, 375 n. ; 
library, 2 ; birth, 80 ; in father's 
fourth expedition, 200 5 motto, 
210. 

Colve, Anthony, governor of recon- 
quered New Netherland, 8.30—36, 

45- 

Commerce. See Trade. 

Committees of correspondence, origin 
and importance, 10, 92-96. 

Common Sense ^ effect, 10. 205, 206. 

Communism, Indian, i. 77-81, 93; 
Mexican, 122 5 in Virginia, 4. 
166, 173, 196. 

Compass, necessary to systematic 
ocean navigaiion, i. 297 5 intro- 
duction, 360-362 ; deflection 
during voyage of Columbus, 2. 
106. 

Conant, Roger, at Cape Ann settle- 
ment, 6. 112. 

Conciliation during the Revolution, 
Lord Howe's negotiations, 10. 
236-239, 248-250; North's 
measures in 1778, 11. 10, 27. 

Concord and Lexington, Mass. , bat- 
tle, 10. 142-150. 

Conestogas, Susquehannocks, g. 48. 

Congregationalisa., established in 
Massachusetts, 6. 131, 12. 90; 



and theocracy in New England, 6 
132, 139. 150, 165, 177, 191, 
304,309-317, 323, 3445 power 
and character of the ministers, 151, 
181, 207, 210, 238, 298, 314, 
g. 197 ; Cambridge Platform, 

6. 216; innovations of Brattle 
Church, g. 204 ; Saybrook Plat- 
form, 215-218 5 condition in early 
years of eighteenth century, 220— 
222 5 outgrowth of Halfway Cov- 
enant, 221 ; effect of Edwards's 
teachings, 224. See also Great 
Awakening, Puritans, Separat- 
ists. 

Connecticut, Dutch claims and occu- 
pation, 6. 149, 7. 135, 172-177, 
180, 181, 297-301 ; Pilgrims 
in, 6. 149, 7. 1745 grant to Say 
and Brooke, 6. 150, 7. 177 ; set- 
tlement, 6. 152-154, 7. 177; 
government, 6. 154-156, g. 211 j 
Pequot War, 6. 156-163,7. 178- 
1805 charter, 6. 247-249, 7. 
320 ; annexes New Haven, 6. 
249, 8. 6 ; and Andros, 6. 335, 
342 ; claim to New Netherland, 

7. 321, 326; New York bound- 
^•■yj 8. 5, 53-58 5 and Fletcher, 
253-255 5 social conditions, 308 ; 
increased conservatism, g. 212- 
219 ; Saybrook Platform, 215- 
218 j founding of Yale College, 
218—220 5 opposition to the Great 
Awakening, 230 ; share in the 
Louisburg expedition, 251 5 troops 
for campaign of 1759, 343 ; in- 
structs for independence, 10. 217 j 
settlement in Wyoming Valley, 
II. 105, 12. 175-179; gradual 
emancipation, 87 ; financial con- 
dition after 1783, 204 ; western 
territory, 224, 229 ; ratifies the 
Constitution, 379. See also New 
England. 

Constitutions written, of Connecti- 
cut, 6. 155 ; state, 12. 77. See 
also Federal Convention, Govern- 
ment, Ratification. 



456 



GENERAL INDEX 



Continental Congress, First, lo. 122- 

124, 128, 130. 

Continental Congress, Second, per- 
sonnel at first, 10. 155 ; status, 
156, 184, 186, 284, 290, II. 
30, 12. 110-117, 244; military 
affairs, 157, 193, 206, 256-258, 
283, 287-289, 296, 304, 343, 
347, 397-401, II. 32-37, 42, 
54, 62, 87, 144, 255, 258, 
12. 125-127, 1325 advises colo- 
nies to frame governments, 10. 

185, 192, 2135 and England, 

186, 188, 249, II. 27 ; financial 
and commercial affairs, lO. 187, 

11. 30, 237-240, 12. 116, 123- 

125, 128, 170, 185, 258-261 ; 
foreign afi'airs, 10. 193, 206, 216, 
280, II. II, 88, 161-166, 182, 

12. 41, 142, 155 ; declaration 
of independence, 206, 215-217, 
224-229 ; decline and vv'eakness, 
II- 55, ^37, 12. 67, 118-120, 
192, 220, 276-281, 322; driven 
away by troops, 133 ; and the 
Shays's Rebellion, 219, 220 ; ter- 
ritorial measures, 226-235, 240- 
246 ; and the Federal Convention, 
257, 261-263, 3^^ 5 migration, 
367 ; end, 414, 

Contrecceur commands Fort Du- 
quesne, g. 274, 288. 

Convicts, transported. See Serv- 
ants. 

Conway, H. S., in Rockingham's 
ministry, 10. 29, li. 348, 12. 
6 'j dismissed, 10. 53 ; supports 
colonial resistance, 71, 112. 

Conway, Thomas, in Conway Cabal, 
II. 40, 43, 45, 54, 55. 

Conway Cabal, 11. 40-55. 

Conyngham, Gustavus, cruise off 
England, 11. 148. 

Coode Rebellion, 5. 185-188. 

Cooper, Anthony Ashley, Earl of 
Shaftesbury, a proprietor of Caro- 
lina, 5. 317 ; and Locke, 318 ; 
and the Fundamental Constitu- 
tions, 319. 



Copeland, Patrick, interest in Vlr« 
ginia education, 4. 274. 

Copley, Sir Lionel, governor of Mary- 
land, 5. 188. 

Cordova, Francisco Hernandez de, 
(first), expedition to Yucatan, 3. 

30-33- 

Cordova, Francisco Hernandez de, 
(second), in Central America, 3. 
205 5 executed, 205. 

Corey, Giles, witchcraft victim, g. 
164, 179- ^ 

Corey, Martha, witchcraft victim, 9. 
164, 180, 183. 

Corlear, Arendt van, settles Sche- 
nectady, 8. 63 ; and the Iroquois, 
63, 65 5 death, 63. 

Cornbury, Viscount, governor of 
New York and New Jersey, 8. 
277-281. 

Cornstalk, Shawnee chief, at battle 
of Point Pleasant, 11. 122. 

Cornwallis, Lord, on Stamp Act, 10. 
31 ; arrives in America, 232 ; at 
Long Island, 243 ; in the New 
Jersey campaign, 262, 263, 270- 
275 ; on Washington, 278 ; at 
Brandywine, 376-380 ; at Mon- 
mouth, II. 73 ; in the South, 
213, 218; on South Carolina 
disorders, 219 5 on the partisans, 
223 5 at Camden, 229 ; invades 
North Carolina, 293 5 retreat af- 
ter King's Mountain, 298 ; be- 
wildered by Greene's movements, 
303 ; pursuit of Greene in North 
Carolina, 307-310 5 at Guilford 
Court House, 309-311 ; retreat 
to Wilmington, 312; in Virginia, 
313; campaign against Lafayette, 
323-327 ; at Yorktown, 328 ; 
surrounded, 336 ; surrender, 340. 

Cornwallis, Thomas, councillor in 
Maryland, 4. 320; and Claiborne, 

343- 
Coronado, Francisco de, expedition, 

3- 338. 
Cortereal brothers, Caspar and Mig- 
uel, voyages, 2. 234, 9. 6. 



457 



GENERAL INDEX 



Cortes, Hernando, character, 3. 36 ; 
expedition to Mexico, 37 ; actions 
due to knowledge of Mexican con- 
ditions, 37, 41-43, 71 ; founds 
Vera Cruz, 3 8 ; cuts loose from 
Velasquez, 38 ; scuttles his ships, 
38 ; force, 40 ; at Cempoala, 
41-43 ; at Xocotlan, 43 ; line of 
march, 43, 49, 52 ; and the 
Tlascalans, 43-48 ; treachery 
and massacre of Cholulans, 49— 
52 5 first sight of Mexico City, 
52-54 ; situation in Mexico City, 
69-71 ; seizure of Montezuma, 
71—76 ; seizure of Cuitlahuatzin, 
77 5 destroys idols, 77 ; marches 
against Narvaez, 78 ; returns to 
Mexico City, 8 1 ; result of releas- 
ing Cuitlahuatzin, 81-83 5 retreat, 
83 ; victory at Otumba, 845 alli- 
ance with Tezcuco, 85; siege of 
Mexico City, 85-87 5 later life, 
87; and Pizarro, 2175 explora- 
tion on the Pacific coast, 332. 

Gortlandt, Stephen van, mayor of 
New York, and Andros, 8. 51 ; 
and Leisler's Rebellion, 210, 216, 
219, 221 n. 

Cosby, William, governor of New 
York, 8. 289 ; Zenger's com- 
ments on, 293. 

Cosmas Indicopleustes, geographical 
theories, i. 306-308 ; on India 
and China, 309. 

Cosmographie Introduction contents, 
2. 364, 365 ; editions, 365 5 
first suggestion of name America, 
366-368. 

Cotton, John, minister in Boston, 6. 
1335 joins Antinomians, 143; 
on government, 1 5 1 5 death and 
estimation, 225 ; as a typical Pu- 
ritan, 8. 374. 

Cotton, influence on slavery, 12. 86, 

Council, question of its functions in 
Maryland, 5. 177; and in New 
York, 8. 251, 285 J and in Penn- 
sylvania, 360. 



Council for New England, members 
and powers, 6. 108, 7. 133 j 
grants land to Massachusetts Bay 
Company, 6. 114 ; surrenders 
charter, 137. 

Counties, origin of English, i. 112 n,; 
names of Virginia, 5. 7,8 n.,9n.; 
functions of Virginia, 43—48. 

County lieutenant in Virginia, 5. 
48. 

Courcelle, Sieur de, governor of Can- 
ada, invades the Iroquois country, 

8. 58, g. 1025 recalled, 115. 
Coureurs de bois, origin and nature, 

9. 105. 

Courts, legal, Virginia House of 
Burgesses as, 4. 287; in Mary- 
land, 331, 5. 171, 1725 county, 
in Virginia, 44-47 5 inquisitoria) 
methods in Massachusetts, 6. 165, 
201, 221, 3135 justice in king's 
name, 317, 3185 in New Neth- 
erland and New York, 7. 132, 
155, 8. 310 J Crown control of 
colonial judges, 10. 15, 92; act 
to allow trial in England for of- 
fences in colonies, 114 5 early 
state, 12. 81 ; uprisings against, 
213, 217. See also Judiciary. 

Cousin, Jean, voyage, I. 173, I74n. 

Cowley, Ambrose, buccaneer, 5. 
418. 

Cowpens, S. C, battle, ii. 304- 
306. 

"Crackers," origin, 5. 374-376. 

Crandall, John, Baptist, persecuted 
in Massachusetts, 6. 218-222. 

Cranfield, Edward, governor of Nevr 
Hampshire, 6. 324. 

Craven, Lord, a proprietor of Caro- 
lina, 5. 317. 

Craven, Charles, governor of South 
Carolina, 5. 354, 356, 358. 

Creek Indians, i. 35, 50. 

Crees, Algonquin Indians, I. 51. 

Cresap, Michael, and the Indians, 
II. 119-121 ; death, 121. 

Cresap' s War. See Lord Dunmore's 
War. 



4i8 



GENERAL INDEX 



Crimes and punishments, colonial, 
5. 308-310, 386, 8. 178, 

Cromwell, Oliver, sends commission- 
ers to Virginia, 4. 367 ; sustains 
Lord Baltimore, 371, 372; im- 
portance, 6. 9 j advanced views, 
235, 8. 125. 

Crown, authority over colonies, 4. 
257,6. 141, 145, 194,243,317, 
318, 344, 10. 2, 3, 9, 35, 38- 
41 5 and the proprietary govern- 
ments, 4. 316, 5. 168, 8. 176 ; 
right to colonial soil, 4. 279, 
140, 332 ; growth of power, 
35, 40-42; successful coalition 
against, 35 ; antipathy to local 
self-government, 42 ; danger in 
Calvinism, 71, 82, 84; Stuart 
attempts at absolutism, 119, 328— 
331 5 jealous of joint action of 
colonies, 10. 13, 57, 188 ; control 
of colonial judges, 15, 92. See 
also kings by name. 

Crown Point, N. Y., strategic value, 
g. 327, 10. 152 ; evacuated by 
the French, g. 348 ; captured by 
Americans, 10. 154. 

Crowne, William, English grant of 
Acadia, g. 96. 

Cuba, Columbus discovers and coasts, 
2. 117, 159, 161 5 supposed to 
be Asian mainland, 118, 162— 
168 ; discovery of insularity, 264, 
291, 293, 295, 298 ; confused 
on maps with Florida, 303—305 ; 
conquered, 3. 29, 274. 

Cuitlahuatzin, Montezuma's brother, 
seized by Cortes, 3.77; released 
and supersedes Montezuma, 82 ; 
death, 86. 

Culpeper, Lord, grant of Virginia, 
5. 62, 131; as governor, 128, 

Culpeper, John, insurrection in North 

Carolina, 5. 330-333. 
Culture, and race, i. 28 5 grades, 

39—38 ; caution on classification, 

39> 41. 

459 



Cumana, Pearl Coast, Las Casas's 
attempted colony, 3. 285-288. 

Cushing, F. H., at Zuni, i. 100, 
102 n., and the Zuni priests, 3. 
337 n. 

Customs. See Navigation Acts. 

Cutler, Manasseh, and the Ohio 
Company, 12. 241 ; and the Or- 
dinance of 1787, 242. 

Cuyler, Yan Yost, used by Arnold 
to frighten St. Leger, 10. 345. 

Cuzco, Peru, founded, 3. 124; 
Pizarro at, 223 ; besieged by 
Manco, 228 ; seized by Almagro, 
229. 

Dale, Sir Thomas, high marshal of 
Virginia, character, 4. 192, 193, 
1955 code, 194; abolishes com- 
munism, 196 5 expansion of col- 
ony under, 197, 202, 262 ; and 
the Jesuits, g. 79. 

Danbury, Conn., captured by Tryon, 
10. 303. 

Dane, Nathan, and the Ordinance 
of 1787, 12. 242; opposes the 
Constitution, 368. 

Dankers, Jasper, in Maryland, 5. 
165 ; in New York, 8. 71, 85- 
100. 

Dare, Virginia, first white child born 
in America, 4. 41,46. 

Darien, founding of colony, 3. 178— 
181 ; abandoned and reestablished, 
183 5 arrival of Pedrarias, 191. 

Dartmouth, Lord, colonial secretary, 
10. 98, 

Daughters of Liberty, purpose, 10. 

Davenant, Sir William, poet-laureate, 
grant of Maryland, 4. 361. 

Davenport, James, revivalist, eccen- 
tricities, g. 227 ; arrested, 230. 

Davenport, John, character, 164 ; 
serm>on on regicides, 246 n. 5 op- 
poses annexation of New Haven 
to Connecticut, 250 ; opposes 
Halfway Covenant, 315; pastor 
First Church of Boston, 315. 



GENERAL INDEX 



Davila. See Gonzalez, Pedrarias. 

Davis, Edward, buccaneer, discovers 
Easter Island, 5. 419. 

Davis, John, search for northwest 
passage, 3. 378. 

Dayton, Jonathan, member of the 
Federal Convention, 12. 267, 
271. 

Deane, Silas, commissioner to France, 
10. 280. 

Debts, private, and the treaty of 
1783, 12. 31, 155 ; public, 
Washington on, 64 5 foreign 
loans, 125, 185; sacredness, 320. 

Delaware, Lord, appointed governor 
of Virginia, 172, 179 ; identifica- 
tion with America, 172; arrival, 
183; administration, 188-190; 
return to England, 191 ; death, 
216. 

Delaware, Swede and Dutch settle- 
ments and Maryland's claim, 5. 
161— 163 ; New York's claim, 
167, 8. 5 5 granted to Penn, 5. 
169, 8. 173 ; religious liberty, 
115, 12. 89; legislative separa- 
tion from Pennsylvania, 8. 360 ; 
instructs for independence, 10. 
220 ; permits emancipation, 12. 
87 ; ratifies the Constitution, 377. 

Delaware Indians, Algonquins, I. 51; 
mound builders, 1 68 ; sell Man- 
hattan Island, 7. 140 ; wars with 
New Netherland, 205-218, 226, 
314-318 ; Penn's treaty, 8. 184; 
Pennsylvania land purchases from, 
189 ; why peaceful in Pennsyl- 
vania, 193 ; in Ohio valley, 9. 
263 ; become English allies, 341. 

Delawarp River, Gomez sees, 7. 79; 
early cartography, 87 5 Hudson 
enters, 103 • Christiansen ascends, 
121; Fort Nassau built, 135; 
Swedish colony, 277—281 ; Can- 
overthrows the Dutch, 8. 4. 

Demarcation, bull of, 2. 142-148 ; 
influence on service of explorers, 
407 n. ; opinion of Francis I., 9. 



8. 



Demoiselle, La, Miami chief, and 
Celoron, 9. 278 ; killed, 279. 

Denmark, in Armed Neutrality, 2. 
182. 

Denonville, Marquis de, governor of 
Canada, and Dongan, 8. 201. 

Dermer, Thomas, voyages, 7. 132. 

Dias, Bartholomew, circumnavigates 
Africa, I. 381 ; effect of his voy- 
age, 383 ; death, 2. 324. 

Dickinson, John, Farmer's Letters^ 
10. 54 ; hopes for reconciliation, 
122 ; opposes independence, 186, 
216, 225, 226; supposed author 
of Articles of Confederation, 12. 
Ill; member of the Federal Con- 
vention, 270. 

Dieppe, France, early trade with 
Africa, 9. 2 ; and the Newfound- 
land fisheries, 33 ; as a centre of 
nautical science, 34. 

Dieskau, Baron, sent to America, 9. 
281 ; battle of Lake George, 
297-300. 

Digges, Edward, governor of Vir- 
ginia, 4. 368. 

Dighton rock inscription, I. 247 n.— 
249 n. 

Dinwiddie, Robert, governor of Vir- 
ginia, 5.456; sends Washington to 
warn ofi" the French, 467, 9. 270; 
war measures impeded by the legis- 
lature, 272, 277; advises colonial 
consolidation and ta.xation, 10. 6, 

Discovery and title to wild lands, 7. 
132, 164, 322. 

Dixwell, John, regicide, in New 
England, 6. 247 n. 

Dominicans and Indian slavery, 3. 
270, 271. See a/so Las Casas. 

Donck, Adrian van der, manor, 7. 
246 ; and Stuyvesant, 250-253, 
26;^ , jn Nf'w Netherland, 267. 

Dongan, Thomas, governor of New 
York, covets Connecticut, 8. 
54 n. ; character, 198 ; Indian 
diplomacy, 200-202, 9, loj } 
Earl of Limerick, 8. 206. 



460 



GENERAL INDEX 



Donop, Count von, commands Ger- 
man troops in British army, lO. 
189 ; at Princeton, 270 ; killed, 

379- 

Dorchester, Mass., opposes aristo- 
cratic tendencies, 6. 151 5 first 
selectmen, 1525 emigration to 
Connecticut, 152, 154. 

Dorchester adventurers, settlement, 
6. 112. 

Dorchester Heights, Mars., seized 
by Americans, 10. 200. 

Doughty, Francis, settles on Long 
Island, 7. 211. 

Dover, N. H., settled, 6. 146. 

Drake, Sir Francis, circumnavigates 
the earth, 3. 377, 4. 30-33 ; 
with Hawkins, 22 ; attacks on 
the Spanish, 25, 29-31, 38-40 ; 
not a buccaneer, 28, 5. 399 5 
rescues Raleigh's colony, 4. 39 ; 
and the Armada, 42, 44. 

Drayton, Michael, poet laureate, 
farewell to Newport's Company, 
4. 91-93 ; verses to George 
Sandys, 273. 

Drayton, W. H., on independence, 
10. 231. 

Dress, Aztec, 3. 60; Virginia law, 
4. 289 5 Virginia colonial, 5. 274 ; 
New York colonial, 8. 327-329. 

Drink, Aztec, 3. 64 ; penalties in 
Virginia, 4. 289 ; Virginia colo- 
nial, 5. 267 ; New York colo- 
nial, 8. 53, 323. 

Drogio, Zeno's description, I. 282- 
285 5 identity, 286 j analogues, 
287-291. 

Drummond, William, governor of 
Albemarle, 5. 75, 323 • and Bacon, 
75, 90 ; executed, 109 5 relief of 
his widow, 1 1 1 . 

Prysdale, Hugh, governor of Vir- 
ginia, 2. 455- 

Duane, James, opposes independence, 
10. 214. 

Dudley, Joseph, character, 6. 322 ; 
agent to England, 328, 331 5 rules 
Massachusetts, 334 ; press censor. 



338 ; on rights of New England, 

339 5 imprisoned, 340 5 founder 
of New England Toryism, g. 201 5 
governor of Massachusetts, 210 5 
and the Machers, 210. 

Dudley, Thomas, deputy-governor, 
Massachusetts Bay Company, 5. 
1245 character, 124; goes to 
America, 126. 

Duelling in Virginia, 5. 309. 

Duke's Laws, 8. 3, 45. 

Dummer, Jeremiah, on colonial 
union, 10. 7. 

Dummer, William, lieutenant-gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts, conflict 
with the assembly, g. 243. 

Dunbar, Thom.as, retreat after Brad- 
dock's defeat, g. 292. 

Dunkers in Pennsylvania, 8. 407. 

Dunmore, Lord, royal governor of 
Virginia, offers to free slaves and 
servants who enlist, ip. 210 ; 
burns Norfolk ,211. See also Lord 
Dunmore's War. 

Duquesne, Marquis, governor of 
Canada, sends expedition to Ohio 
valley, g. 268 j recalled, 282. 

Durant, George, settlement in North 
Carolina, 5. 322 5 and Sothel, 

334- 

Durham palatinate, 4, 301, 303- 
305, 323-327. 

Dutch, language, 7. 3, 7; English 
kinship, 3 ; meaning of the word, 
4 ; origin of the disparaging use 
of the term, 183 ; influence on 
American progress, 8. 414. See 
a/so Netherlands, New Nether- 
land. 

Dutch Church in New York, char- 
acter of the clergy, 7. 189, 228, 
8. 100, 102-104 5 conditions in 
1680, 104; independence, 106. 

Dutch East India Company, form.a- 
tion, 7. 58, 117; See also In- 
dies. 

Dutch West India Company, at- 
tempts to establish, 7. 117, 120 ; 
charter and powers, 1 29 j suly 



461 



GENERAL INDEX 



scription, 130 ; prosperity, 145 5 
charter of Privileges and Exemp- 
tions to New Netherland, 154- 
159 5 petition of New Netherland 
against, 252. See also New Neth- 
erland. 

Dyer, Mary, Quaker, executed, 6. 
238 5 feared, 239 n. 

Dyer, William, collector of the port 
at New York, 8. 45 5 indicted 
for treason, 196 5 released and re- 
warded, 196. 

Eannes, Gil, Portuguese navigator, 
passes Cape Bojador, i. 371. 

Earth's surface, changes, i. 16. 
^ee also Geography. 

East Indies. See Indies. 

East Jersey. &e New Jersey. 

Eastchurch, Thomas, governor of 
North Carolina, 5. 329, 331. 

Easty, Mary, witchcraft victim, g. 
176-179, 181-183. 

Eaton, Theophilus, leader of New 
Haven colony, 6. 163 5 and Stuy- 
vesant, 7. 294. 

Economic conditions, English in six- 
teenth century, 4. 53-57. See 
also Agriculture, Manufactures, 
Taxation, Trade. 

Eden, Charles, governor of North 
Carolina, 5. 3565 and the pirates, 
428. 

Eden, Sir Robert, governor of Mary- 
land, 5. 200, 10. 220. 

Eden, Garden of, speculations of 
Columbus on, 2. 187. 

Edenton, N. C, rest of government, 
5. 356 ; no churches in, 364. 

^dict of Nantes, revoked, 6. 55, 8. 
399 • neutralized, 398, 399 5 is- 
sued, g. 35. 

Va;.3undson, William, and Berkeley, 
5. 66. 

Education, attempt to establish a 
university in Virginia, 4. 274 5 
attitude of Puritans, Liberal 
Churchmen, -^nd Quakers, 276, 
6.. 1^2-185, 5. 374, 375 j in- 



struction of Indians, 4. 288, 5. 
144, 6. 255 ; early free schools 
in Virginia, 5. 5 ; William and 
Mary College, 135-137, 144- 
150; school in Maryland, 189 j 
in Virginia and New England, 
286-297, 7. 37 ; early free 
schools in South Carolina, 5. 379 ; 
Harvard College, 6. i 34, g. 206- 
211 ; public schools originate in 
the Netherlands, 6. 134, 7. 21 j 
in New York, 8. 332 ; Phila- 
delphia schools, 375. 

Edwards, Jonathan, greatness, 6. 222 ; 
mysticism, 223 5 emphasis on con- 
version, 224; revival of 1734, 
226 5 quarrel with his church, 
231 ; president of Princeton, 231. 

Eelkens, Jacob, and the Iroquois, 7. 
123; and Twiller, 168-170. 

Egede, Hans, in Greenland, i. 262. 

Elcano, Sebastian, in Magellan's 
voyage, mutinies, 2. 434 5 return 
voyage, 447 ; crest, 450. 

Eliot, John, Indian Bible, 6. 257' 
Indian missionary, 258-260,265; 
deplores Indian slavery, 299. 

Elizabeth, queen of England, patri- 
otic, 4. 42, 6. 67 5 penurious, 5. 
58 ; character of her Protestant- 
ism, 6. 51, 70; policy, 7o-73» 
83 5 and the Puritans, 71, 78. 

Elizabeth City, Va., named, 4. 264. 

Elizabethtown, N. J., 8. 13. 

Ellsworth, Oliver, 12. 271. 

Emigration, of Cavaliers to Virginia, 
4. 18-21 ; Scotch-Irish, 5. 456- 
462, 8. 412 5 significance of Pu- 
ritan, 6. 57 ; character of New 
England, 94, I70-I75» 7- ^5^ j 
Pilgrim, 6- 95-99 ; Puritan, to 
Massachusetts, 117, 1 26, 154, 
1665 to Connecticut, 152-154; to 
New Haven, 164, 165 ; of sects 
to America, 7. 149, 267, 8. 
385-414; inducements in New 
Netherland, 7. 198. 

Enciso, Martin Fernandez de, and 
Darien, 3. 181-183, ^^^j ^9^- 



462 



GENERAL INDEX 



Encomiendas, introduction, 3. 265 5 
New Laws on, 301 5 gradual 
abolition, 302. See also Slavery. 

Endicott, John, sent to Naumkeag, 
6. 1 14 -1 16; governor, 117; 
defaces English flag, 141 5 rav- 
ages Block Island, 1575 on Bap- 
tists, 220-222 ; character, 227, 
241 ; persecution of Quakers, 
238. 

Endrede Andreasson, last bishop of 
Greenland, I. 262. 

England, hrst step toward supremacy, 
2. 213, 233 5 policy of individual- 
ism, 3. 404 ; religious persecu- 
tion, 404, 6. 48 ; and Spain 
during Elizabeth's reign, 4. 11 — 
13, 22-31,39-44, 46, 51 ; eco- 
nomic condition under Elizabeth, 
25, 53—57 5 development of in- 
terest in colonization, 51-71, 225 ; 
Dutch commercial influence, 52, 
7- 39-'43» 51-53 j origin of 
settlement of Virginia, 4. 73-93 5 
palatinates, 300-305 ; class condi- 
tions, 5. 15-18, 6. 35, 52, 71 ; 
Navigation Acts, 5. 53-59, 7. 
289; French wars, 5. 195, 6. 
343, 8. 245, 9. 249, II. 13 ; 
slavery, 5. 232-234; later Span- 
ish wars, 359, II. 161-166 ; 
efforts against the pirates, 5. 413, 
421, 8. 264 ; irrepressible con- 
flict with France in America, 5. 
440, g. 233, 240 ; development of 
civil liberty, 6. 29, 32, 35, 7. 24, 
27 ; character of Germanic inva- 
sion, 6. 30-34 ; efi^ect of Norman 
conquest, 34 ; importance of Great 
Rebellion, 43, 53, 55, 59, 167- 
169; Lollards, 49-51, 61-66, 7. 
44; dual character of Reformation, 
6. 51-54, 66 ; influence of Bible, 
62—65 5 geography of Puritanism, 
73-76, 7. 44 ; influence of long 
peace, 6. 121 n. ; effect of Revolu- 
tion of 1689, 341 ; Dutch reli- 
gious influence, 7. 43-46 ; inter- 
est in the East Indies, 61 j claim 



to New Netherland, 131-1345 
137, 144, 163-165, 170, 320- 
324 ; Dutch friendship, 282, 287 j 
commercial rivalry with the Neth- 
erlands, 288 ; Dutch wars, 289, 
^90, 338, 8. 19, 27, 39-41, 
II. 189-194; personal union 
with the Netherlands, 7. 291 ; 
importance of New Netherland to 
its control of America, 324, 338, 
8. I ; affair of the Seven Bishops, 
349-351 ; captures Acadia and 
Quebec in 1628,9. 9^ '1 restores 
them, 92 ; witchcraft trials, 138- 
140, 143 ; Witch Act, 143 ; 
allied with Prussia, 302 ; political 
condition in 1767, lO. 37 ; Whig 
control, 45-49 ; self-contradictory 
attitude in the Revolution, 116, 

11. 196 ; disbelief in colonial 
common cause, 10. 120, 135, 
137; effect of Concord, 149; 
effect of New Jersey campaign, 
278 ; effect of Burgoyne's sur- 
render, II. 5 ; importance placed 
on a restricted colonial trade, 6, 

12. 161— 166; party views on 
America in 1778, 11. 7, 9-11 ; 
desperate situation in 1778, 13 ; 
hope in Chatham, 14-17 ; debt 
to Chatham, 21 ; resources taxed, 
98 ; threatened invasion foiled, 
167 ; naval supremacy, 168, 169, 
347 ; exercise of right of search, 
169, 172, 178-181, 189 ; de- 
sires alliance with Russia, 175- 
178, 181 ; and doctrine of free 
ships, free goods, 183-185 ; mu- 
tual disregard of treaties with Hol- 
land, 187 ; effect of Yorktown, 
344; serious position in 1781, 
345 ; debt to the Revolution, 
349 ; first American ministry to, 
12. 164; legal fiction and real 
government in, 343-355. See 
also Colonies, Crown, Parliament, 
Peace of 1783, Treaties, and also 
colonies, kings, statesmen, and 
wars by name. 



463 



GENERAL INDEX 



English, acquire primacy, 6. 6, 57 ; 
Dutch kinship, 7. 3. See also 
England. 

English East India Company, forma- 
tion, 7. 58 ; activity, 61. 

Entail in Virginia, 5. 40 ; abolished, 
12. 83. 

Episcopal church of America, origin, 
100; first bishops, loi. See also 
Church of England. 

Eratosthenes, on an encompassing 
ocean, I. 341 ; on westward route 
to Indies, 2. 43 ; on size of earth, 

47. 

Eric Gnupsson, bishop of Greenland 
and Vinland, i. 257 5 search for 
Vinland, 258. 

Eric the Red, settles Greenland, I. 
182-185 '1 ^'s saga, 229. See 
also Sagas. 

Erie Indians, I. 53, g. 48 ; exter- 
mination, I. 55, 89, g. 49. 

Escobar, Pedro de, Portuguese navi- 
gator, crosses equator, I. 375. 

Eskimos, descended from Cave-men, 

I. 19-23 ; relation of American 
and Siberian, 21 n. 5 not Indians, 
25 5 not natives of Vinland, 217, 
218 n. 5 destrov Norse settlements 
in Greenland, 260. 

Espinosa, Gaspar de, chief judge of 
Darien, 3. 191 ; voyage on the 
Pacific, 202. 

Espinosa, Gonzalo Gomez de, in 
Magellan's fleet, 2. 447 ; pen- 
sioned and ennobled, 450. 

Estaing, Count d', arrival in America, 

II. 88 ; fleet unable to enter New 
York harbour, 89 5 before New- 
port, 92—95 5 proclamation to 
Canada, 97 ; conquests in West 
Indies, 167 ; at attack on Savan- 
nah, 211. 

Estevanico, negro, adventures with 
Cabeza de Vaca, 3. 331 5 with 
Fray Marcos, 334 ; reception in 
Z-uni, 335-337- 

Estotiland, Zeno's description, i. 
281 J identity, 282, 285. 



Eugenius IV., pope, grants heathen 
countries to Portugal, i. 373. 

Europe, condition in 1000, i. 297— 
300 ; outlook toward Asia only, 
300—303 5 effect of Saracen 
empire, 310 5 effect of Crusades, 
312, 314—316 5 condition in 
1300, 318 ; origin of name, 2. 
367 n.— 369 n. 5 modern map 
foreshadowed, 7. 10 5 conditional 
and of sixteenth century, 9. 34. See 
also the countries by name. 

Eutaw Springs, S. C, battle, ll. 
320 5 effect, 321. 

Evans, John, as deputy-governor of 
Pennsylvania, 8. 365-367. 

Evelin, George, action in Marj'land, 
4. 351. 

Evertsen, Cornelius, Dutch admiral, 
captures New York, 8. 28. 

Ewing, James, at crossing of the 
Delaware, 10. 269. 

Executive, national, in the Federal 
Convention, in the Virginia plan, 
12. 286 ; in the New Jersey plan, 
293 ; debate, 327-329 5 single 
head, 329 ; election and reeligi- 
bility, 330-339 ; theory and prac- 
tice of election, 339-342; mod- 
elled after mistaken idea of Eng- 
lish, 343, 351-354; veto power, 
354 5 independence a desirable fea- 
ture, 355-357 ; question of a 
council, 357-359 ; Senate's share, 
358. See also Governor. 

Exeter, N. H,, settled, 6. 146. 

Expeditions, interior : Cortez in Mex- 
ico, 3. 37-53, 69-87 ; Balboa on 
the isthmus of Panama, 186-188 ; 
Pizarro in Peru, 207—241 ; Ca- 
beza de Vaca's, 331 ; Fray Mar- 
cos's, 333-337; Coronado's, 338 ; 
Soto's, 339-341 ; Champlain's, 
359> 9- 65-71, 83-88; La Salle's, 
3. 362-369, 9. 111-115, 126- 
132 ; Marquette and Joliet on the 
Mississippi, 3. 363, g. 1 17-120; 
Hennepin's, 3. 371 ; across the 
Rocky Mountains, 373- 376 j 



464 



GENERAL INDEX 



Spotswood crosses the Blue Ridge, 
5. 449-452 5 Celoron in Ohio 
valley, g. 264-267. See also 
Voyages. 

Explorations, See Expeditions, Voy- 
ages. 

Exquemeling, Alexander, Dutch 
buccaneer, 5. 41 1. 

Faeroe Islands, Zenos at, I. 264- 
267 5 on Zeno map, 271. 

Fagundes, Alvarez, voyage, g. 7. 

Fair Haven, Mass., burned by the 
British, 11. 132. 

Fairfax, sixth Lord, and Washington, 
5. 464, 465. 

Fairfield, Conn., burned by the Brit- 
ish, II. 133. 

Familists, belief, 6. 198. 

Family, patriarchal, not primitive, i. 
63-65 5 primitive kinship through 
female, 65-68 5 origin of indissol- 
uble marriage, 69, 74 5 earliest 
forms, 71 5 exogamy, 72 ; change 
to male kinship, 72, 73, 76 5 de- 
velopment of phratry and tribe, 725 
Aztec, 140-142 5 growth of pa- 
triarchal, 3. 1 1 8-1 20 j in Peru, 
161. See also Clan. 

Federal Convention, steps toward, 
12. 253-257, 263 ; calling of, 
257, 262 ; conditions favouring, 
258 ; appointment of delegates, 
261-263 5 character and compo- 
sition, 264-271 ; Washington 
president, 271 5 secrecy, 272, 
273 5 Madison's journal, 272 5 
problems, 273, 276-279 ; Vir- 
ginia plan, 276, 280, 284-287 5 
reception of Virginia plan, 287 • 
popular election of representatives, 
288 5 antagonism on state repre- 
sentation, 289-297 5 New Jersey 
plan, 290 5 Hamilton's plan, 292 j 
Connecticut compromise, 297— 
302, 3 I 7 J fear of the West, 303 j 
representation according to popula- 
tion, 304; compromise on slave 
representation, 305-311, 317 j 



compromise on slave trade and 
commercial powers, 311— 313 
316, 317 ; federal powers, 318- 
322 5 expressed prohibitions, 320 5 
state prohibitions, 323 ; question 
of paper money, 323-327 ; debate 
on the executive, 327-339, 343, 
357-359 ; provisions for the judi- 
ciary, 359 ; provisions for amend- 
ment and ratification, 362 ; signing 
of the draft, 363 ; closing scene, 
364-366. 

FeJei-alist, character, 5. 296, 12. 
410 } authorship, 5. 297 n., 12. 
409. 

Fendall, Josias, governor of Mary- 
land, 4- 373> 5- ^53 5 P^ot against 
the proprietary, 156—160. 

Fenwick, John, in West Jersey, 8. 
19, 162, 163, 166. 

Ferdinand, king of Aragon, no share 
in first expedition of Columbus, 2. 
102 ; gets credit for the discovery, 
I 39 n. ; edicts of 1495 and 1497, 
178, 308-311 ; dissatisfaction 
with Columbus, 190, 192, 3075 
and Indian slavery, 3. 255, 264, 
271 5 death, 276. 

Ferguson, Patrick, at King's Moun- 
tain, II. 294-297 5 killed, 297. 

Fernandez, Dinis, Portuguese naviga- 
tor, passes Cape Verde, i. 374. 

Ferrar, Nicholas, deputy-treasurer of 
London Company, 4. 2395 char- 
acter, 240—242 ; answers charges, 
251-253; attempt to corrupt, 254; 
copies records, 259-261 ; zeal for 
education, 276. 

Fielding, affair with Bylandt, li. 
180. 

Filibuster, origin of the name, 5. 
406. 

Finances, requisitions on the states, 
ii. 238, 240 ; collapse of conti- 
nental, 12. 123-125, 185 ; dis- 
tress, 193-2005 cost cf the Re- 
volution, 198 ; national powers 
under the Constitution, 320. Set 
also Money, Taxation. 



46s 



GENERAL INDEX 



Firearms, selling of, to the Indians, 

7. 124, 206, 247, 8. 67. 
Fisher, Mary, Quaker, in Boston, 6. 

232 ; in Turkey, 233. 
Fisheries, ^ee Newfoundland. 
Fitzherbert, Alleyne, peace envoy, 

12. 26. 
Five Nations. See Iroquois. 
Flag, provisional American, 10. 203 5 

stars and stripes first hoisted, 341 . 
Flatlands, L. I., settled, 7. 201. 
Fleete, Henry, and Claiborne, 4. 

341-343- , 

Fletcher, Benjamin, governor of 'New 
York, character, 8. 247 j and 
the assembly, 250 ; as governor 
of Pennsylvania, 253 ; and the 
Connecticut militia, 253-255 ; 
accusations against and recall, 
265. 

Flirting, legislation against, 4. 289. 

Florida, Vespucius coasts, 2. 277, 
date of discovery, 297-303 ; con- 
fused on maps with Cuba, 303— 
305 5 discovery by Ponce de Leon, 
3. 3165 attempted Spanish colo- 
nies, 341 ; Huguenot colony, 342- 
344 5 its destruction by Spanish, 
344-350 ; founding of St. Augus- 
tine, 346 ; destruction of Hugue- 
not colony avenged, 352—354 ; 
importance of destruction, 354 5 
and South Carolina and Georgia, 

5-317, 3^5,336,341, 356-359, 
390—392 5 Spanish conquest in 
the Revolution, 11. 167, 346. 

Flushing, L. I., refuses to enforce 
religious persecution, 8. 272, 273. 

Folkland, idea of, and development 
of national territory, 12. 221, 
245. 

Fonseca, Juan Rodriquez de, head of 
Spanish department of Indian af- 
fairs, 2. 149 ; character, 149 ; 
hatred of Columbus, 152, 180, 
190, 197; and Las Casas, 3. 
276, 284, 285. 

Food, Indian, 1.57; Aztec, 3. 62 ; 



Peruvian, 1 13; Virginia colonial, 
5. 266-268 } New York colo- 
nial, 8. 323, 324 n. See also In- 
dian corn. 

Forbes, John, character, 9. 336: 
expedition against Fort Duquesne, 
336-341 ; death, 342. 

Ford, Philip, Penn's steward, 8. 
368. 

Forestalling, penalties in V^irginia, 4, 
293. 

Fort Amsterdam, N. Y., built, 7. 
140. See also New Amsterdam, 
New York City. 

Fort Christina, Del., built, 7. 277. 

Fort Crevecoeur, 111., La Salle 
builds, 3. 365, g. 127 5 mutiny 
and destruction, 3. 366, g. 128. 

Fort Duquesne (Pittsburg), impor- 
tance of location, g. 261, 263, 
326 5 rival English colonial claims 
to site, 268 5 French build, 272 j 
Braddock' s expedition against, 283— 
293 ; effect of destruction of Fort 
Frontenac, 335, 340 5 Forbes's 
expedition against, 337-340; iso- 
lated and abandoned, 341 ; named 
Fort Pitt, 341. 

Fort Edward, N. Y., built, g. 296 ; 
Webb's force at, 311 ; evacuated 
by Schuyler, 10. 320. 

Fort Frontenac (Kingston), Canada, 
built, 8. 61, g. 124 5 strategic 
value, 326, 335 ; captured, 334. 

Fort Good Hope (Hartford), 7. 

135, 173, 177, 3'^7- 

Fort Griswold, Conn., slaughter of 
garrison, 11. 136 n., 339. 

Fort Le Bceuf, Penn., French block- 
house, g. 268 ; Washington at, 
271. 

Fort Lee, N, J., position, 10. 253 j 
evacuated, 261. 

Fort Lyman. See Fort Edward. 

Fort Mercer on the Delaware, im- 
portance, 10. 372 ; reduced by 
the British, 379. 

Fort Mifflin on the Delaware, in> 



466 



GENERAL INDEX 



portance, lO. 372 ; reduced by 

the British, 379. 
Fort Moultrie, S. C, attack in 

1775, 10. 2,33-2-35 ; surrender 

in 1780, II. 215. 
Fort Nassau on the Delaware, Dutch 

and Virginians at, 4. 298, 7. 

i35» 187. 
Fort Nassau on the Hudson, 7. 1235 

rebuilt, 135. 
Fort Necessity, Penn. , battle and 

surrender, 9. 275. 
Fort Niagara, N. Y., failure of 

Shirley's expedition against, 9. 

294, 300 5 capture by Johnson, 

345—347 j loyalists' headquarters, 

II. 1045 Sullivan's expedition 

against, no, 113. 
Fort Orange, N. Y., built, 7. 135 ; 

threatened trouble with the Mo- 
hawks, 141 ; named Albany, 8. 

I. See also Albany. 
Fort Stanwix (Rome), N. Y., 

built, g. 335 ; siege by St. Leger, 

10. 335 ; sortie, 341 j siege 

raised, 346. 
Fort Washington, N. Y., position, 

10. 253 5 captured, 256-258 5 
effect of capture, 258. 

Fort Watson, S. C, captured by 
Americans, II. 315-318. 

Fort William Heniy, N. Y., Mont- 
calm's expedition against, g. 310— 
3135 surrender, 3135 massacre. 

Fountain of Youth, Mandeville on, 
3. 314; folk-lore, 315 5 Spanish 
search for, 315. 

Fox, Charles, on tea tax, 10. 1 12; 
on colonial common cause, 120 5 
on North's conciliation measures, 

11. 10 ; effect of Yorktown on, 
344 ; in Rockingham's miinistry, 
348, 12. 6 ; and Shelburne, 6, 
9, 13, 16—18 ; favours parliamen- 
tary reform, 7 5 resigns, 18 ; 
character, 18 ; coalition with 
North, 44-50 ; coalition ministry. 



52 ; India Bill, 54 ; overthrow. 

55- 

Fox, George, birth, 8. 126 ; teach- 
ings, 127 ; character, 128. 

Foxes, Algonquin Indians, i. 51. 

France, becomes interested in Amer- 
ica, 3. 323 5 conflict with Eng- 
land in America, 5. 440, 6. 343, 
9. 233, 2395 religious persecution, 
6. 4M9» 54, 7- 44, 8. 394, 
398-40T ; failure of Reformation, 
6. 55, I ?-2 ; prosperity under Louis 
XIV., ■i.ir) 5 temporary cessation 
of maritime ictivity, 7. 92 ; plan 
to conquer N'^w York, 8. 202 5 
rise of Hugnenots, 393 ; war with 
Spain, g. 8, 12; civil wars, 325 
condition at end ni sixteenth cen- 
tury, 34 ; policy "n America, 
62-64, 104, 120-122, I 32 5 in 
war of Austrian Succesi'on, 249 j 
in the Seven Years' War, 302 j 
disasters in 1759, 34- j 'r.terest in 
American affairs in 1776, 10. 
279 5 assistance, 280, 282 ; com- 
mission sent by Congress to, 280 ; 
?Jliance with United States, 1 1. 
II ; policy of alliance, 11. 342 n., 
12. 21 ; war with England, 13; 
unpopularity of alliance in Amer- 
ica, 18,97; fleet sent to America, 
68, 88 ; sends minister to Amer- 
ica, 88 ; loan of vessels to Ameri- 
can navy, 151 ; alliance with 
Spain, 165 ; invasion of England 
foiled^ 167 ; attitude on maritime 
rights of neutrals, 171, 182 ; in- 
fluence of French philosophers, 
1 74 ; value of alliance to Amer- 
ica, 210- 7.42 ; sends troops, 244, 
245 ; and the peace of 1783, 12. 
20-25, 43- S^- '^^^^ Army, Can- 
ada, Colonies, and kings and wars 
by name. 

Francis I. of France, on the bull oi 
demarcation, 9. 8 : cactnre, t% » 
creates a viceroyalty in the 1^1 ew 
World, 22, 28. 



467 



GENERAL INDEX 



Franklin, Benjamin, plans of union, 
5. 446, g. 280, 10. 9, 10, 186 ; 
in Philadelphia, 8. 372, 376 ; 
knowledge of colonial poHtical con- 
ditions, 10. 8 ; political foresight, 
I I ; colonial agent in England, 20j 
on acquiescence in stamp duty, 205 
on colonial representation in Par- 
liament, 40 5 on colonial contri- 
bution to French and Indian War, 
117 J advises payment for the tea, 
121 ; consulted by British minis- 
try, 1 34 ; significance of return 
to America, 135; on Bunker 
Hill, 172 ; on committee to draft 
Declaration of Independence, 227; 
commissioner to France, 281 ; 
superintends maritime affairs, II. 
149 ; magnanimity, 149 ; in- 
formal peace negotiations, 12. 10 ; 
and the separate negotiations, 27, 
39; credit for the negotiations, 41 ; 
on need of more congressional 
power, 186 n. 5 member of the 
Federal Convention, 266 5 on the 
drafted Constitution, 363, 365 5 
presents the draft to legislature of 
Pennsylvania, 367. 

Franklin, William, royal governor 
of New Jersey, arrested, 10. 218. 

Franklin, state of, rise and fall, 12. 
236-238 ; lesson, 239. 

Fraser, Simon, British general, at 
Hubbardton, 10. 3165 mortally 
wounded at Freeman's Farm, 387. 

Frederick the Great, and the Seven 
Years' War, 9. 301 5 hatred of 
George III., 10. 50, 11. 176 5 on 
hiring of German troops, 10. 1 91 5 
encourages America, II. 12 5 
debt to Chatham, 23 ; suggests 
doctrine of free ships, free goods, 
173 5 influence over Catherine, 
176, 193 5 disbelief in stability 
of United States, 12. 69 ; trade 
treaty, 184. 

Free ships, free goods. See Neutral- 
ity. 

Freeman's Farm, N. Y., first battle. 



10. 382-384 ; second battle 
386-389. 
French and Indian War, first move- 
ments, g. 271—276 5 troops sent 
to America, 281 5 first naval bat- 
tle, 282; first comprehensive plan, 
285, 294; war declared, 301 5 
strategic points, 326 ; English 
preparations for campaign of 1759, 
342-345 ; colonial contribution, 
10. 17. See also fortified places 
and generals by name. 
Freydis, wife of Thorvard, evil deeds 

in Vinland, I. 194-196. 
Frislanda, cartography, I. 271, 2. 
228 n., 3. 3565 identity with 
Faeroe Islands, I. 271 n., 273 j 
Columbus describes, 2. 57. 
Frobisher, Sir Martin, search for 

northwest passage, 3. 378. 
Frontenac, Louis de Buade, Count 
of, governor of Canada, designs on 
New York, 8. 202 ; designs frus- 
trated, 204 ; character, 229, g. 
1 1 6 5 invades Iroquois country, 
8. 2.30 ; defeated by Schuyler, 
250. 
Frontier, Scotch-Irish and Palatine 
settlers, 5.456, 460-463, 8. 409, 
4I3»9- 259; Carolina, 5. 315, 
388, 389 5 conditions in America, 
315,4635 advance of English set- 
tlements, 9. 237, 259-264, II. 
122-125, 1295 border warfare, 
100, 114, 124, 12. 605 condi- 
tions and claims, 1 1 . 115; Lord 
Dunmore's War, 11 7-1 22 5 im- 
portance of battle of Point Plea- 
sant, I 22 j conquest of the North- 
west, 125-129 ; cardinal events 
during the Revolution, 1 30 5 
Great Britain refuses to surrender 
posts, 12. 157. See also Terri- 
tory. 
Fuca, Juan de la, voyage, 3. 378 n. 
Fuegians, 3. 63, 96. 
Fuller, William, Puritan head of 
Maryland government, 4. 370j 
defeats Stone, 371 j yields to Fen- 



468 



GENERAL INDEX 



dall, 5. 153 ; in Fendall's plot, 
159. 

Fundamental Constitutions of Caro- 
lina, 5. 319-322. 

Fur-trade, French, on the Hudson, 7. 
79, 92, 9. 28 ; early Dutch, 7. 
118; Dutch monopolies, 119, 
121, 157 ; illicit Dutch, 162, 
194 ; Kieft's reforms, 195 ; 
made free in Mew Netherland, 
197 5 coveted by England, 325 5 
Caughnawaga middlemen, 8. 2865 
Burnet's measuies, 288 ; con- 
trolling interest in New York, 
304 ; monopoly of Canadian, g. 
36-38, 49, 57, 59, 82, 90; in- 
terests opposed to settlement, 88 5 
route, 104, 261 ; diversion to the 
English, 262. 

Gadsden, Christopher, advocates 
Stamp Act Congress, 10. 24 ; 
bioad views for liberty and union, 
25 5 on payment for the tea, 121 5 
captured at Charleston, 2. 276. 

Gage, Thorras, with Braddock, g. 
289 5 corrmander-in-chief in 
America, fears to enforce Stamp 
Act in New York, 10. 25, 28 ; 
unable to quarter soldiers in Bos- 
ton, 69; advises coercion, iii, 
119 5 governor of Massachusetts, 
116; dissolves the assembly, 1 24; 
proclamation against town meet- 
ings, 125 5 fortifies Boston Neck, 
1275 Howe to supersede, 1325 
fears temper of Boston, 140 5 at- 
tempts to corrupt Samuel Adams, 
140 5 sends troops to Lexington, 
142 ; offers amriesty, 161 5 plan 
at Bunker Hill, 164. 

Gama, Vasco da, voyage to Hindu- 
stan, I. 383, 2. 191 ; effect on 
Spanish exploration, 400. 

Gamaland, fabulous island in the 
Pacific, 3. 385. ^ 

Gambling in Virginia, 5. 279. 

Gansevoort, Peter, commands Fort 
Stanvvix, 10. 336 j sortie, 341. 



Garcilasso de la Vega, Roycl Com' 
mentaries of the Incas,^- 108 n. ; 
correctness, no n. 

Gardiner, Sir Christopher, in Massa- 
chusetts, 6. 126. 

Gardiner, Lyon, builds and com- 
mands Fort Saybrook, 7. 177, 

Gardoqui, Diego de, Spanish envoy, 
negotiations on the Mississippi, 12. 
248. 

Gasca, Pedro de la, royal agent to 
Peru, arrival, 3, 238 5 defeats 
and executes Gonzalo Pizarro, 

239- 
Gaspee, British sloop, burned by mob 

in Rhode Island, 10. 90-92. 
Gates, Horatio, with Braddock, g. 

289 5 character, 10. 178, 269, 

298, 348, 389* II- 50, iiOj 
intrigues against Schuyler, 298— 
301 5 responsible for fall of Ticon- 
deroga, 318 ; in Saratoga cam- 
paign, 383-385, 389, 394; 
credit for Burgoyne's surrender, 

11. 38 5 insubordination, 39 5 in 
Conway Cabal, 40, 43-54 ', com- 
mands southern department, 224 ; 
Lee's warning, 225 ; Camden 
campaign, 225—233 ; downfall, 
233 ; and the Newburgh address, 

12. 129-132. 

Gates, Sir Thomas, member of Lon- 
don Company, 4. 77 ; lieutenant- 
governor of Virginia, 173 5 voyage 
to Virginia, 174-177, 181 5 re- 
ports to company, 191. 

Geminus, Greek astronomer, on 
torrid zone, I. 355. 

General Court of Massachusetts, ori- 
gin, 6. 1 27-1 3 1 ; character under 
new charter, g. 185. 

Genoa, Italy, trade rivalry with 
Venice, i. 316, 327, 336, 5. 
401 5 birthplace of Columbus, 2. 
17,18. 

Gentilism. See Clan. 

Geography, Zeno map, I. 268- 
272 5 knowledge in ancient and 
mediaeval Europe, 296, 303 ,• 



469 



GENERAL INDEX 



Ptolemv map, 304 5 theories of 
earth's shape, 307, 308 n., 356, 
2.41-46, 186-188, 198; first 
knowledge of Pacific Ocean, i. 
321 5 Marco Polo's contribution, 
328; Catalan map, 332; result 
of intercourse with Mongol empire, 
334 5 impulse for new route to the 
East, 337 ; ancient opinion on an 
encompassing ocean, 340-342, 
350, 2. 41-465 ancient theory 
of the five zones, I. 351-356; 
superstitions concerning inhabitants 
of unknown regions, 358 ; Medici 
map, 3 69 ; effect of Portuguese 
vovages, 376-380, 383 ; Tosca- 
nelli's chart, 2. 25, 28 n. 5 the- 
ories on size of earth, 47-55 ; 
Toscanelli on westward route to 
Indies, 28-33 5 origin of westward 
route, 35-37, 41-43 5 47; mis^ 
leading " ancient atlases," 65 n. ; 
sixteenth centuiy maps, 221, 305, 
353, 4. 48, 7. 83 ; Cabot map, 
2. 223-225, 230; La Cosa 
map, 227-230, 293-297 ; Can- 
tino map, 235, 297-299, 306 
n.5 Waldseemiiller's Tabula Terre 
Nove, 299-303, 371 ; confu- 
sion of Florida and Cuba, 303- 
305 ; importance of Vespucius's 
third voyage, 333-338, 3565 
Ruysch map, 346-349 ; Lenox 
globe, 349-351 ; Finsus globe, 
352-3545 influence of Ptolemy 
and Mela on early cartography of 
New World, 354-357, 372, 380 ; 
Leonardo da Vinci map, 379; 
Schoner globes, 380 5 Agnese 
map, 381, 3. 326, 4. 725 Mun- 
ster map, 2. 381, 3. 3275 Mer- 
cator gores, 2. 3855 Stobnicza 
map, 414 ; and romantic spirit, 3. 
1—4 ; Verrazano map, 325, 7. 
72, g. 1 1 5 Verrazano Sea, 3. 
326, 329, 356, 4. 72, 7. 72, 9. 
1 1 ; Gastaldi map, 3. 327, 7. 87 ; 
Lok map, 3. 356, 4. 72; Dee 
map, 3. 357, 358 J Joliet map. 



369 ; Smith's m?p of Virginia, 4. 
138 5 MaioUo map, 7. 73-75, 9. 
1 1 5 early cartography of east coast 
of North America, 7. 84-87 ; 
Ribeiro map, 86 ; Santa Cruz 
map, 86 ; cartography of Norum- 
bega, 87-91 ; alleged chart of 
Denys, 9. 4-6 ; Luiz map, 7 ; 
cartographical union of Hudson and 
St. Lawrence rivers, 27. Hee also 
America, North America, South 
America. 
George IIL of England, colonial and 
home policy, 10. 44, 45, 47-5^* 
II. 16, 351, 12. 3 ; character, 
10. 45—47 5 personal government, 
53,87,11. 349, 352,12. I. 54; 
plan to enforce colonial taxation, 

10. 97-99 ; refuses to receive con- 
gressional petition, 188 5 proclaims 
rebellion, 1885 hires foreign sol- 
diers, 188— 1 90; on capture of 
Ticonderoga, 3185 satirical print 
on, II. 130. ; effect of York- 
town, 344, 347 ; and the coali- 
tion ministry, 12. 49, 52-55 5 
disbelief in stability of United 
States, 68. 

Georgia, buffer colony, 5. 390; set- 
tlement and government, 390- 
392 5 social condition, 392, 8. 
392 ; instructions on independ- 
ence, 10. 209 ; conditions in 
1779, H- ^99 5 overrun by Brit- 
ish, 201—203 5 regained by Amer- 
icans, 348 ; paper money, 12. 
201 5 ratifies the Constitution, 

,379- 

Gerard, C. A., French minister to 
United States, 1 1. 88 ; seeks to 
limit claims of United States, 
165. 

Germain, Lord George, on the colo- 
nies, 10. 1 10 5 colonial secretary, 
191 5 plan of campaign for 1777, 
305-314, 358, 3805 war policy, 

11. 28, 100, 131, 197, 198, 
205 5 shifts blame for Burgoyne's 
surrender, 66 ; dismissed, 347. 



470 



GENERAL INDEX 



German troops in British army, lO. 
189— 191 ; effect on independence, 
203 5 desert, 277, 11. 81. 

Germanic races, future solidarity, 
II. 23. 

Germanic tribes, culture status, 1. 
37 ; mobility, 3. 173 n. ; local 
self-government, 6. 20, 29 5 effect 
on Roman political organization, 
20-23 5 representation, 29 5 char- 
acteristics of invasion of England, 
30-34 ; counter-effect of Roman 
ideas, 31, 34, 39- 

Germans, emigration to America, 

4- 144, 5- 347, 371, 462, 8. 
303, 406-410, 9. 259, 10. 
336. , 
Germantown, Penn., battle, 10. 

373-379- 

Gerrits, Dirk, Dutch navigator, Ant- 
arctic voyage, 7. 65. 

Gerry, Elbridge, member of Federal 
convention, 12. 271 ; refuses to 
sign the Constitution, 363. 

Gibraltar, siege, 11. 167, 168, 346, 
347, 12. 20; as a factor in the 
peace negotiations, 20, 42. 

Gilbert, Bartholomew, on coast of 
Virginia, 4. 65, 1 19. 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, advice to 
^ueen Elizabeth, 4. 27, 28 ; at- 
tempted colony, 33 ; death, 34. 

Glen, John, and the French attack 
on Schenectady, 8. 226, 227. 

Glover, Mrs., of Boston, executed 
for witchcraft, 9. 148, 152. 

Glover, John, his amphibious sol- 
diers, 10. 247, 269, II. 96. 

Glover, William, acts as governor 
of North Carolina, 5. 345. 

Godfrey, Thomas, mathematician, 
8. 376. 

Godfrey, Thomas (second), drama- 
tist, Prince of Parihia, 8. 377. 

Goffe, William, regicide, in New 
England, 6. 245, z-j^-z-j^, 
321. 

Gold, Columbus inquires for, 2. 117; 
discovery in Hayti, 157, 175; 



effect of discovery on Indian sla- 
very, 3. 266 ; delusion in Vir- 
ginia, 4. 144. 

Gomez, Diego, discovers Cape Verde 
Islands, i. 374, 

Gomez, Estevan, with Magellan, 2. 
428, 438 ; on coast of North 
America, 3. 322, 7. 9. 

Gon9alves, Antonio, voyage on Afri- 
can coast, I. 372 ; begins mod- 
ern slave trade, 372. 

Gondomar, Count, Spanish ambassa- 
dor to London, influence over 
James I., 4. 229-231, 233-235, 
284. 

Gonzalez Davila, Gil, in Central 
America, 3. 203—206. 

Gooch, William, governor of Vir- 
ginia, 5. 455._ 

Good, Sarah, witchcraft victim, 9, 
162, 180; execution, 180. 

Goode, John, on Bacon's plans, 5. 
96-100. 

Goodwin witchcraft case, 9. 148, 
152-154. 

Gookin, Daniel, conversion, 4. 356 j 
Indian superintendent, 6. 279, 

Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, in Plymouth 
Company, 4. 79, 6. 108 ; career, 
107 ; in Council for New Eng- 
land, 108 ; grants and colony in 
New England, 115, 126, 137, 
188, 318, 320, 325. 

Gorton, Samuel, character and reli- 
gious belief, 6. 197-201 ; troubles 
in New England, 201—212 ; later 
life, 212 n. 

Gosnold, Bartholomew, on New 
England coast, 4. 65 5 sails with 
settlers of Virginia, 84, 107-109 ; 
death, 115. 

Gourjjues, Dominique de, avenges de- 
struction of Huguenot colony, 3. 

352-354- 
Government, Indian, i. 82,85, ^9~ 
91, 100; Mexican, 122-127 j 
Peruvian, 3, 139-1445 genesis 
of English colonial, 4. 36, 7. 
257-259, 262} Virginia under the 



471 



GENERAL INDEX 



London Company, 4. 75, 170- 
172, 219-221 5 Massachusetts 
under first charter, 277, 315, 6. 
116, 123, 127-1325 Virginia as 
a royal province, 4. 279, 285— 
287, 315 J palatinate, 300-305, 
323-327; Maryland proprietary, 
315-317, 3^9-334; colonial 
types, 315, 328 ; Pennsylvania 
proprietary, 5. 168, 8. 360-3625 
Fundamental Constitutions of Car- 
olina, 5, 320-322; origin of 
modern, 6. 22 ; Connecticut, 
154-156; New Haven, 165; 
Nevi^ England Confederacy, 191 ; 
New Hampshire, 324 ; Massa- 
chusetts under second charter, 
344 ; growth of monarchy, 7. 
13 ; New Netherland, 152, 259, 
262; Netherlands, 283-285; 
NewYork, 8. 3, 231, 2,46 ; East 
Jersey, 14, 17; West Jersey, 
167; true basis of democracy, 
359 ; establishment of state, 10. 
185,209, 213,218, 12. 75-82; 
Northwest Territory, 242—244 ; 
English, 343-355 ; conception 
of American, 361. See also Con- 
tinental Congress, Federal Con- 
vention, Local self-government. 
Nation-making, Representation, 
Union, 

Governors, early state, 12. 79. See 
also Assemblies. 

Graffenried, Baron de, in North 
Carolina, 5. 347, 35 1, 353- 

Grant, James, disastrous reconnois- 
sance on Fort Duquesne, g. 339 ; 
contempt for provincials, 340 ; at 
Long Island, 10. 243. 

Grants, of Virginia to Arlington and 
Culpeper, 5. 62, 131 ; Dutch 
ordinance of 1 6 14, 7. 119 ; to 
Duke of York, 330, 8. 41 ; of 
New Jersey, 12, 42 ; French 
fur-trade monopoly, g. 36-38, 
49, 59, 90 ; of Acadia, 49, 76, 
93, 96. See also Charters. 

Grasse, Count de, fleet in York town 



campaign, 11. 329-331, 334, 

336 ; defeated by Rodney in West 

Indies, 346, 12. 16. 
Grave, Francois. See Pontgrave. 
Graves, Thomas, defeated by Grasse, 

II. 336. 
Gravesend, L. I., settled, 7. 199. 
Gray, Robert, discovers Columbia 

River, 3. 375. 
Great Awakening of 1734, g. 225- 

231- 

Great Rebellion, significance, 6. 53, 
55, 56, 59-61, 167-169. 

Green Farms, Conn., burned by 
British, 11. 133. 

Green Mountain Boys, purpose, 10. 
153 ; capture Ticonderoga and 
Crown Point, 153. See also Ver- 
mont. 

Green Spring, Va., battle, 11. 327. 

Greene, Nathanael, character, 10. 
176, 259 ; fortifies Brooklyn 
Heights, 242; commands Fort Lee, 
253, 261; blunders at Fort Wash- 
ington, 257-259 ; and Washing- 
ton, 259, II. 300; at Brandywine, 

10. 366, 369 ; at Germantown, 
375, 376 ; quartermaster-general, 

11. 59 ; tries Andre, 274 ; versed 
in military law, 279 ; abused, 
300 ; commands southern depart- 
ment, 301 ; plan of campaign, 
302 ; campaign, 307-321 ; and 
congressional revenue, 12. 128 ; 
death, 266. 

Greene, Roger, settlement in North 
Carolina, 5. 322. 

Greenland, discovered, I. 1 79-1 8 1 ; 
settled, 182-185, 197; applica- 
tion of name, 183 ; change in 
climate, 183 n., 202-204 ; ar- 
chaeological remains, 251 ; condi- 
tions and end of settlement, 256, 
260—262 ; Zeno visits, 265, 266 ; 
described, 275-277 ; on Ruysch 
map, 2. 348, 353 ; insularity re- 
cognized, 3. 381. 

Greenwich, Conn., settled, 7. 200 j 
controlled by the Dutch, 201. 



472 



GENERAL INDEX 



Grenville, George, prime minister, 
lO. 175 declaratory resolves on 
taxing colonies, 1 8 5 defends Stamp 
Act, 29 ; opposes extension of 
treason-abroad statute, 70. 

Grenville, Sir Richard, convoys Ra- 
leigh's settlers, 4. 38. 

Grenville, Thomas, peace envoy, 
12. 12 J rebuffed, 16. 

Grey, Sir Charles, defeats Wayne, 

10. 372 } at Germantown, 374, 

377- 
Grijalva, Juan de, expedition on 

Mexican coast, 3. 19, 34-36. 
Groseilliers, Sieur des, explorations in 

the West, 9. loi. 
Grube, Master, identity of voyage, 

2. 231. 
Guatemala conquest, 3. 90 ; Las 

Casas in, 290. 
Guercheville, Marchioness de, and 

the Jesuits, Q. 74 ; grant, 76. 
Guiana, Raleigh's quest, 4. 233. 
Guichen, Count de, defeated in the 

West Indies, li. 169. 
Guilford, Conn., settled, 6. 165. 
Guilford Court House, N. C, battle, 

11. 309-313- 

Gulf of St. Lawrence, alleged dis- 
covery, g. 4 5 Fagundes's explora- 
tion, 75 Cartier in, 13, 14. 

Gunnbjorn, viking, discovers Green- 
land, I. 181. 

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, in- 
terest in America, 7. 275. 

Habeas corpus, writ, denied in Eng- 
land, 6. 119 5 suspended in Mas- 
sachusetts, 338, 12. 215; for- 
bidden in Quebec Act, 10. 115. 
See also Civil liberty. 

Hackensack, N. J., settled, 7. 208 ; 
Americans occupy, 10. 275. 

Hadley, Mass., Indian attack, 6. 
^75-^77, 294. 

Hakluyt, Richard, as a geographer, 
4. 49; Discourse on Western Plant- 
ing, 50-54 5 in London Com- 
pany, 77 ; instructions to settlers 



of Virginia, 84-90 ; on IndianSi 
152. 

Haldimand, Frederick, defends Os- 
wego, g. 345 ; manuscripts, 345 n. 

Hale, Nathan, and Major Andre, 

II- 274- 

Half-King, Indian chief, unstable 
friendship, g. 269 ; warns Wash- 
ington, 274 ; at Fort Necessity, 
275. 

Halfway Covenant in Massachusetts, 
6. 314-316, g. 2005 outgrowth, 
221 ; effect of the Great Awak- 
ening, 225, 231. 

Hamilton, Alexander, political belief, 

5. 114, 12. 2675 ^" ^^^ Revolu- 
tion, II. 46, 340, 12. 49 5 birth 
and ancestry, 147 ; character, 
148; defends Tories, 150-153 j 
Annapolis Convention address, 
256 ; member of the Federal Con- 
vention, 267 ; plan, 292 ; on 
electing the president, 340-342 j 
Federalist, 409-4115 in New 
York ratifying convention, 411. 

Hamilton, Andrew, defends Zenger, 
8. 292-300 } on Pennsylvania's 
progress, 382. 

Hamilton, Henry, commands De- 
troit, plans united Indian attack, 
II. 125 ; captures Vincennes, 
128 ; surrenders to Clark, 129. 

Hampton, N. H., settled, 6. 146. 

Hampton, Va., named, 4. 220. 

Hampton Court Conference, futile, 

6. 84 ; promotes separatism, 85. 
Hancock, John, riot over his sloop, 

10. 60 ; character, 127 ; president 
of provincial congress, 129 ; at- 
tempt to arrest, 140-143 ; presi- 
dent of Congress, 156; desires 
command of the army, 157 ; ex- 
empted from offer of amnesty, 
161 ; urges destruction of Boston, 
200 ; grudge against Samuel Ad- 
ams, II. 41 ; governor of Massa- 
chusetts, pardons Shays's insur- 
gents, 12. 218 ; attitude toward 
the Constitution, 381, 396. 



473 



GENERAL INDEX 



Hsndcock, Tuscarora chief, 4. 353, 

3 5 5- 

Hanging Rock, S. C, battle, 1 1. 
223. 

Hanham, Thomas, member of Ply- 
mouth Company, 4. 79. 

Hansford, Thomas, Bacon's lieuten- 
ant, executed, 5. 107. 

Hardy, Sir Charles, governor of 
New York, advises tax on colo- 
nies, 10. 14. 

Harlem, N. Y., in 1679, 7. 96. 

Harlem Heights, N. Y., British at- 
tack, 10. 2,525 Americans with- 
draw, 254. 

Harrison, Benjamin, on defiance of 
England, 10. 156 ; on independ- 
ence, 203 ; opposes the Constitu- 
tion, 12. 403. 

Harrison, Thomas, and Berkeley, 

4-. 358, 3^5- 

Harrisse, Henry, research on Colum- 
bus, 2. 8. 

Harrod, James, pioneer in Kentucky, 
II. 122. 

Hartford, Conn., Dutch fort, 6. 
149, 7- 135. 1725 settled, 6. 
152, 7. 178; boundary treaty, 
297-301. 

Hartley, David, peace envoy, 12. 

53- 

Harvard, John, endows the college, 
6. 133. 

Harvard College, founded and named, 
6. 134, 158 5 one Indian gradu- 
ate, 256 5 presidents mentioned, 
258, 315, 332, 337 n-, 9- 203, 
208, 210, 229, 10. 1625 liberal- 
ism, g. 203, 208, 213, 214, 
219 ; question of the charter, 
206, 210 ; question of religious 
test for its officers, 207 5 Louis- 
burg cross, 256. 

Harvey, Sir John, governor of Vir- 
ginia, 4.295; complaints against, 
344 ; deposed, 345-349 5 rein- 
stated and reprisals, 349 ; fall and 
feath, 350. 



Hatfield, Mass., convention in 1786, 
12. 213. 

Hauk, Erlendsson, Icelandic chroni- 
cler, version of saga on Vinland, 
I- 229, 233, 239 n., 246; an- 
cestry, 232 ; manuscripts, 232. 

Hawkins, Sir John, abandons men 
on Mexican coast, I. 288, 4. 23; 
succours Huguenot colony, 3. 
346, 4. 19-21 5 as a slave-trader, 
18, 19; affair at San Juan de Ulua, 
22-24 5 ^"'^ ^^^ Armada, 42. 

Havne, Isaac, American colonel, 
executed, II. 138 n. 

Hayti. K:ee Hispaniola. 

Heath, "William, American general, 
before Boston, 10. 177 ; com- 
mands in Boston, 397 ; on Con- 
gress and paper money, 399. 

Heimskritigla, Norse chronicle, im- 
portance, I. 179. 

Heister, Philip von, Hessian general 
in English army, 10. 189 ; at 
Long Island, 243. 

Hell Gate, N. Y., named, 7. 120. 

Helluland, location, I. 188. 

Henderson, Richard, pioneer in Ten- 
nessee, II. 122. 

Hendrick, Mohawk chief, at Lake 
George, 9. 299 ; killed, 299. 

Hendricksen, Cornelius, ascends the 
Delaware, 7. 121. 

Hennepin, Louis de, youthful ro- 
mantic spirit, 3. 2, 9. 125 ; ex- 
plorations of upper Mississippi, 3. 
371 ; false claims, 371, g. 126 ; 
with La Salle, 126 j sketches 
Niagara Falls, 126. 

Henrico County, Va., origin, 4. 
198. 

Henry VII. of England, letters pat- 
ent to Cabot, 2. 217 ; reward to 
Cabot, 218. 

Henry VIII. of England, breaks 
with Rome, 6. 51, 66 ; character, 
66. 

Henry IV. of France, and Canada, 
9- 36, 38, 49, 59 } murdered. 



474 



GENERAL INDEX 



73 ; results of abandoning his pol- 
icy, 73. 

Henry the Navigator, Prince, plans 
and motives, i. 364-366, 368 5 
sources of information on, 364 n.j 
life at Sacred Promontory, 366- 
368 ; opposition, 368, 371 n. 5 
first achievements, 370 ; sanctions 
slave trade, 372, 3. 250 5 death, 
I. 375 ; work carried on, 375. 

Henry, Patrick, in Parsons' Cause, 
10. 22 5 resolution and speech on 
Stamp Act, 23 ; on Washington, 
158 ; opposes the Constitution, 
12. 401, 403. 

Herkimer, Nicholas, plan to relieve 
Fort Stanwix, 10. 336 5 at Oris- 
kany, 337-341 ; death, 342. 

Herman, Augustine, Dutch envoy 
to Maryland, 5. 162 ; manors in 
Maryland, 163, 166 j map of 
Maryland, 164. 

Herodotus on an encompassing ocean, 

I- 340, 342, 343- 

Herrera, Antonio de, authority, 2. 
286 ; attacks Vespucius, 393. 

Hiawatha, actuality, I. 54 n. 5 con- 
ceives Iroquois confederacy, g. 47. 

Hibbins, Ann, executed for witch- 
craft, g. 146-148. 

Higginson, Francis, goes to Amer- 
ica, 6. 117; begins Congregation- 
alism in Massachusetts, 131. 

Hillsborough, Lord, colonial secre- 
tary, 10. 53 5 instructions on 
Massachusetts' circular letter, 58; 
for coercion of colonies, 72 j su- 
perseded, 98. 

Hipparchus, disbelief in an encom- 
passing ocean, i. 341 5 on the 
antipodal world, 354. 

Hispaniola, Columbus lands, 2. 120 ; 
thought to be Japan, 120 ; La 
Navidad founded, 122 ; fate, 155 ; 
Isabella founded, 157; interior 
explored, 157; circumnavigated, 
)[69; disorders, 170, 173, 189; 
Aguado in, 1 74 5 and Ophir, 



1755 ^^" Domingo founded, 1 76 j 
Bobadillo and Columbus, 192— 
195 j centre of Spanish coloniza- 
tion, 3. 312^ headquarters of 
buccaneers, 5. 405. See also 
Slavery. 

Hobkirk's Hill, S. C, battle, II. 
317. 

Hochelaga (Montreal), Cartier's 
visit, g. 16—19 5 typical Iroquois 
town, 18 5 destroyed, 42. See 
also Montreal. 

Hodshone, Robert, Quaker, perse- 
cuted in New Netherland, 7. 
270-272. 

Holland. See Netherlands. 

Hollender, Peter, governor of New 
Sweden, 7. 278. 

Holmes, Obadiah, Baptist, in Ply- 
mouth, 6. 218 ; persecuted in 
Massachusetts, 219-224. 

Holy Roman Empire, rise and fall, 
6. 4-5. 22, 39. 

Honduras, Columbus on the coast, 
2. 203 5 Vespucius on the coast, 
272, 292. 

Hooker, Richard, liberalism, 4. 
276, 6. 77. 

Hooker, Thomas, pastor of New 
Town, 6. 151 ; on government, 
151, 154; leads emigration to 
Connecticut, 1535 father of Amer- 
ican democracy, 155. 

Hopkins, Ezekiel, commands Amer- 
ican navy, ii. 144 n. j cashiered, 
145 n. 

Hopkins, Stephen, and the Gaspee 
affair, 10. 91. 

Horn, Schouten van, Dutch naviga- 
tor, voyage, 3. 319, 7. 65. 

Horse-racing in Virginia, 5. 276- 
278. 

Hortop, Job, wanderings, I. 288. 

House of Burgesses, in Virginia, es- 
tablished, 4. 219; functions, 
220; why so called, 265-268; 
not changed by annulment of 
charter, 280, 284 j Hutchinson 



475 



GENERAL INDEX 



on, 482; meetings, 285; con- 
trols taxation, 287 ; Cavalier senti- 
ment in, 366 5 assumes supreme 
power temporarily, 5. 23 5 Long 
Assembly, 66, 77 j Bacon's Laws, 
81-83 5 separate chamber, 82 n. ; 
and Bacon, 88 j refuses to yield 
journals, 128 5 its clerk becomes 
a royal appointee, 133 ; in Mary- 
land, temporary assumption of 
supreme power, 156-158 5 strug- 
gle for rights, 175-180 ; in Vir- 
ginia, conflicts with the governors, 

354, 433-439> 442-445,9-^72, 
277 ; pre-Revolutionary resolves, 
10. 23, 75. 

House of Commons, supremacy, 12. 
345, 350. See also Parliament. 

Houses, Indian, I. 78-80, 93-96, 
8. 93-96 5 pueblos, I. 99-106 ; 
Maya, 153-158; Aztec, 3. 55; 
Peruvian, 102-111, 167-1695 
early, in Virginia, 4. 249, 269 5 
Virginia plantation, 5. 258-266 5 
New York manor, 8. 312—315 5 
New York Dutch country, 320— 
326, 

Howard, Lord, of Effingham, gov- 
ernor of Virginia, character, 5. 
1325 absentee, 134; removed, 

137- 

Howe, George, Viscount, ancestry, 
g. 3175 military insight, 3195 
death, 320 5 effect of his death, 
320, 325 ; monument, 321. 

Howe, Richard, Lord, intercepts 
French troops, 9. 282 5 ancestry, 
317 ; commands fleet in America, 
10. 133 ; to offer conciliation, 
1 34 ; negotiations for conciliation, 
236-239, 248-250 ; allegiance 
proclamations, 267, 365 ; and 
Charles Lee, 352-3545 storm 
prevents fight with Estaing, 11. 
93. See also Howe (William). 

Howe, Robert, American general, 
commands in the South, 11. 201 5 
defeated by Campbell, 202. 

Howe, Sir William, ancestry, g. 



317; at Quebec, 355; to super. 
sede Gates, 10. 132; why ap- 
pointed, 1335 at Bunker Hill, 
165, 1675 in command, 181; 
evacuates Boston, 201 5 before 
New York City, 223 5 plans for 
New York campaign, 235, 239, 
252 5 plan for battle of Long Is- 
land, 243 ; before Brooklyn 
Heights, 246-248 5 captures New 
York City, 250-252 ; bafiled at 
White Plains, 2545 threatens 
New Jersev and Philadelphia, 
255 ; captures Forts Washington 
and Lee, 257-261 ; honours, 267; 
part assigned in Burgoyne's cam- 
paign, 307 ; why not carried out, 
312-314, 350, 357; Lee's ad- 
vice, 352-355, 3575 plans to 
cross New Jersey foiled, 358; 
abandons Burgoyne, 361 5 sails for 
Philadelphia, 362 ; poor general- 
ship, 363 5 campaign against Phil- 
adelphia, 364-372 ; clears the 
Delaware, 3795 resigns, II. 66; 
Mischianza in his honor, 67. -See 
also Howe (Richard). 

Huancas, Peruvian tribe, 3. 125. 

Huascar, Inca, defeated and deposed, 
3. 129, 2135 murdered, 221. 

Hubbardton, Va. , battle, 10. 316. 

Hudson, Henry, Arctic voyages, 3. 
379, 380, 7. 96, 99, loi, 1075 
explores Hudson River, 3. 379, 
7. 103-106 5 deatn, 3. 380, 7. 
108 5 seeks a passage to Verrazano 
Sea, 4. 72, 7. 100 5 ancestry and 
early life, 95-97 5 in Dutch ser- 
vice, 97 5 services desired by 
France, 98 5 on coast of New 
England, 102 5 enters Delaware 
River, 103 ; detained in England, 
107 5 fame, 109. 

Hudson Bay Company, origin, 3. 
3725 French interference, 373. 

Hudson River, seen by Gomez, 3. 
322, 7. 79 ; Hudson explores, 3. 
379, 7. 103-106 5 Verrazano en- 
ters, 7. 74, 82, g. 10, 28} French 



476 



GENERAL INDEX 



traders on, 7. 79, g. 28 ; and No- 

rumbega, 7. 82, 87-89 ; early 
cartography, 8 8, 9. 275 AUe- 
fonsce ascends, 7. 89, g. 27. 

Huguenots, attempted colony in Bra- 
zil, 3. 342 5 attempted colony in 
Florida, 342-354 5 in Virginia, 5. 
238 j in South Carolina, 376 5 
rise and fall of the movement, 6. 
54, 122,8. 393-396, 398, 399 5 
kept out of Canada, 6. 97, 7. 
150, g. 90 ; in Massachusetts, 6. 
171, 8. 401 ; migration, 7. 149, 
8. 399 ; in New York, 396, 
397, 402-405; effect of emigra- 
tion on France, 4C0. 

Human sacrifice, and middle period 
of barbarism, l. 136, 138 n. ; 
in IVlexican tribes, 137, 3. 33, 
34, 66-68 ; among the Chibchas, 
93 ; suppressed by the Incas, 148- 
150, 150 n., 157. 

Humboldt, Alexander von, author- 
ity on Columbus, 2. 9 n. ; refutes 
charges against Vespucius, 263, 

397. 

Hundred, basis of early representation 
in Virginia, 4. 219, 267. 

Hunt, Robert, first clergyman of 
English America, 4. 109. 

Hunter, Robert, governor of New 
York, character, 8. 282 ; and the 
assembly, 283, 284 ; on his expe- 
riences as governor, 285. 

Hunter, William, Maryland priest, 
reprimanded, 5. 192. 

Huron Indians, kin to the Iroquois, 
I. 52, 57, g. 47; annihilated by 
Iroquois, I. 55, g. 49, loi ; site, 
48 ; friendship necessary to the 
French, 63, 64; and Champlain 
attack the Iroquois, 64-70, 86- 
88 ; remnant in Ohio valley, 
263. 

Hurtado. See Mendoza. 

Hutchinson, Anne, Antinomian cru- 
sade, 6. 143 ; exiled, 145 ; settles 
at Portsmouth, R. I., 146 ; later 
life, 146, 7. 211, 216. 



Hutchinson, Edward, slain by In- 
dians, 6. 273. 

Hutchinson, Thomas, ancestry, 6. 
146 ; chief justice of Massachu- 
setts, grants writs of assistance, 10. 
15 ; house sacked, 27 ; governor, 
73 ; History of Massachusetts Bay, 
73 ; hated and misrepresented, 73- 
75 ; conduct in Boston Massacre 
episode, 80-82 ; on Boston's com- 
mittee of correspondence, 94 j 
depreciates courage of Americans, 
119 ; on Samuel Adams, 140 ; a 
patriot, II. 353. 

Hyde, Edward, Earl of Clarendon, a 
proprietor of Carolina, 5. 317. 

Hyde, Edward, governor of North 
Carolina, and Carey, 5. 345 j 
death, 355. 

Iberville, Le Moyne d', leads attack 
on Schenectady, 8. 225. 

Iceland, settled, I. 177; and Mas- 
sachusetts, 177, 178 n. ; growth 
and literature, 178 ; present con- 
dition, 179 n. ; effect of trade 
monopoly, 260 ; not reached by 
Black Death, 261 n. ; Columbus 
in, 2. 59. 

Illinois Indians, I. 51, g. 100, 129, 
263. 

Imago Mundi, influence on Colum- 
bus, 2. 46, 53 n.-55 n. 

Impressment, in Boston, 10. 59- 
61 ; ordered by Parliament, 206 

Imprisonment for debt in America 
12. 205. 

Incas, Peruvian tribe, 3. 123 ; be 
come ruling caste, 124, 139, 167 
See also Peruvians. 

Incas, Peruvian rulers, list, 3. 100 n. 
origin of title, 124; power, 141- 
144, 155 ; vice-deity, 144, 154 
and the vestal nuns, 153; chil- 
dren, 153, 155 ; wife, 154. See 
also Peru. 

Independence, Samuel Adams de- 
cides for, 10. 63, 67 ; growth of 
desire for, 64-67, 155, 186, 



477 



GENERAL INDEX 



203-205 ; legendary Mecklen- 
burg County Resolves, 150-152 5 
steps toward, 185, 192, 2135 
opposition, 186 ; colonies instruct 
for, 209, 212, 213, 217, 218, 
220, 221 ; Lee's resolution, 215 5 
debate, 216, 224-226; vote, 226; 
declaration, 227, 229 ; consider- 
ations on declaration, 229—231 ; 
recognition of, a condition of 
peace, 250, II. II, 27; English 
ministry favourable to recognition, 
3485 necessary to union, 3545 
question of English acknowledg- 
ment, 12. 10, 16, 25, 29. 

India Bill, Fox's, 12. 54. 

Indian corn, importance, i. 33, 4. 
184, 5. 3 ; productive power, I. 

121 n. 5 mentioned in Vinland 
saga, 209—21 1. 

Indians, anthropology and archae- 
ology : type, I.I, 218 ; differenri- 
ation, 2, 25, 28 n. ; origin, 2-4, 
17, 23, 169 ; no intercourse with 
Asia, 24 ; not Eskimos, 25 ; only 
one race, 25—28 ; culture status, 
32» 35-37, 39-41, 97, 3. 92- 
94; languages,^ i. 45, 6. 257; 
groups and their location, I. 45- 
57, 98, 3- 95, 96, 5- 348-350, 
6. 147, 9- 42-45, 63, 99, 106, 
263 ; cruelty, I. 58 5 morality, 
61 5 hospitality, 81, 7. 106; 
mound builders, I. 1 61-168 5 
stage of development at time of 
discovery, 169 ; mental character- 
istics, 4. 152, 9. 22, 66, 269. 

Economic and social life : can- 
nibalism, I. 59, 2. 154, 328, 
413, 3. 62 n., 148, 8. 249 n. ; 
religion, I. 61, 103, g. 67 5 folk- 
lore, I. 61, 62 n. ; social basis, 
67, 76, 91, 102 ; marriage, 76, 
81 5 communism, 77-81, 93, 

122 ; houses, 78-80, 93-96, 99- 
106, 8. 93-96 ; position of 
women, I. 81, 83 ; structure and 
rights of clan, 82 5 funeral cus- 
toms, 83, 123, 3. 93, 151 ; 



origin and structure of phratry, I. 
84 5 structure of tribe, 85 j con- 
federation, 86-91, 4. 110,7.205, 
g. 46 5 common social structure, 
93 ; warfare, 219-222, 6. 291- 
293, g. 68-70, 283 ; dance, 4. 
1345 adoption, 128-130; pesti- 
lence, 6. loi, g. 54. See also 
Aztecs, Mayas, Peruvians. 

Intertribal relations : primacy of 
the Iroquois, i. 55-57, 5. 67, 

6. 148, 261, 7. 141, 213, 332, 
8. 193, 200, g. 47-49, ioi» 
263 ; perpetual war, I. 58 } 
in North Carolina, 5. 350 ; in 
New England, 6. 205-209, 263, 

7. 172, 174; Algonquins dis- 
place Iroquois in Canada, 42-44. 

Relations with the whites : fear 
unknown animals, I. 193, 216, 

3. 40, 217 n. ; and Northmen, 
I. 193, 215 5 and Columbus, 2. 
114, 160 ; taken to Europe, 128, 

4. 66, 6. 91, 7. 68, 8. 282, 9. 
14, 22 ; origin of name, 2. 128 j 
attack Spanish in Hispaniola, 173 j 
Ovando's treatment, 3. 257-259 ; 
Powhatans and Virginia, 4. no— 
112, 118-121, 133, 140, 153- 
166, 198-200, 269 5 massacres 
in Virginia, 223, 357 ; receding 
frontier, 264 ; plans to educate, 
274, 288, 5. 144, 6. 255 ; in 
Maryland, 4. 321, 341 5 war 
preceding Bacon's Rebellion, 5. 
67-76, 83-86, 88, 95 ; Tusca- 
rora War in North Carolina, 347- 
355 ; trouble in South Carolina, 
356-358 ; and the Pilgrims, 6. 
1 01-104; Roger Williams on 
rights, 140 ; Pequot War, 156- 
163, 7. 175, 178; treatment in 
New England, 6. 205, 253-255, 
260, 263-267 ; missionary work, 
255-260, 265, 279, 300,8. 60, 
286, g. 86, 89, 92, 103, 235, 
262 ; why peaceful in Pennsylva- 
nia, 6. 261, 8. 191-194; King 
Philip's War, 6. 267-303, 8. 



478 



GENERAL INDEX 



55-58, 67-71 5 French policy, 
7. I Id, 8. 60, 9. 62-64, 70, 
71, 105, 239 5 sale of firearms, 

7. 124, 206, 247, 8. 67; colo- 
nial land purchases, 7. 140, 157, 

8. 187-191, g. 2385 war with 
Delawares in New Netherland, 7. 
205-218, 226, 314-318; New 
York commissioners, 8. 66 ; 
Penn's treaty, 184; massacre at 
Schenectady, 224-227; and Fron- 
tenac, 229, 9. 116 ; and Cartier, 
15-22 ; both French and English 
incite Indian raids, 239-241 ; de- 
struction of Norridgewock, 243 ; 
bounty for Indian scalps, 245 ; 
Lovewell's fight, 245-248 ; de- 
cline of French influence, 261- 
267 ; as French allies in French 
and Indian War, 288, 298, 301, 
308, 310, 3/3-315, 338, 346; 
as English allies, 297, 300, 341 ; 
convention at Easton, 340 ; rela- 
tions proposed in Albany Plan, 10. 
9 ; in Burgoyne's campaign, 314, 
322-328 ; both sides employ in 
the Revolution, 11, 100, 124, 
137 n.; Lord Dunmore's War, 
1 1 7-1 22. See also Fur-trade, Iro- 
quois, Mexico, Mexico City, Peru, 
Slavery (Indian). 

Indies, book of Cosmas Indicopleus- 
tes on, I. 307, 309 ; Polo de- 
scribes, 328 ; Friar Odoric's visit, 
332 ; Columbus's plan to sail 
westward to, takes shape, 2. 24 ; 
interest in w^estward route, 24-26 ; 
Toscanelli on westward route, 28— 
33 ; origin of westward route, 35— 
37, 41-43, 47, 72 ; general be- 
lief that Columbus had reached, 
129 ; Spanish department, 148- 
150 ; Gama's voyage, 191 ; Por- 
tuguese control, 416-418, 7. 55 ; 
Dutch control, 3. 395, 7. 57- 
60, 117; English in, 61. See 
also North America. 

Indigo, cultivation in South Caro- 
lina, 5. 380-382. 



Ingle, Richard, invasion of Maryland, 

4. 359-361. 
Ingoldsby, Richard, lifeutenant-gov- 

ernorof New York, 8. 230, 281 ; 

arrival, 234; Leisler defies, 235. 
Ingram, David, wanderings in 

America, 1. 288, 4. 23. 
Inns, southern, 5. 255 ; New York, 

8. 331. 

Intendant of Canada, duties, g. 102. 

Intercourse, plans to improve, be- 
tween East and West, 12. 251- 
255. &t? ^Ao Trade, Travel. 

International law, former loose ideas^ 

4. 26, 5. 401. &e <2/io Neutral- 
ity. 

lowas, Dakota Indians, i. 48. 

Ipswich, Mass., protests against 
Andros's tyranny, 6. 338. 

Irish, legendary voyage to America, 
I. 172; in Iceland, 172. 

Iroquois (Five Nations, Six Nations), 
Huron-Iroquois Indians, I. 53 ; 
location and its importance, 54, 8. 
244, 9. 18, 42-46; tribes, I, 
54, 5- 355, 8.288 n., g. 45- 
47; confederation, i. 54, 86- 
92, 118 n., 135, 9. 46 ; prow- 
ess and conquests, I. 55, 133 n., 

5. 67, 6. 148, 261, 7.141,213, 
332, 8. 193, 200, 9. 47-49, 
101, 263 ; number, i. 87 n., 
conversion, 88 n., 8. 60, 286, 

9. 262; "long house," i. 78— 
80 ; relations with the French, 
Dutch, and English, 3. 361, 6. 
162,262, 7. 123, 141,8. 60, 66, 
200-202, 248, 281, 9. 70, 71, 
103, 262 ; importance in Ameri- 
can history, 7. Ill, 8. 61 ; ob- 
tain firearms, 7. 124, 206, 8. 
67 ; Courcelle's invasion, 58, g. 
102 ; conference with Andros, 
8. 62-65 ; defeat King Philip, 
70 ; conference with New Eng- 
land envoys, 70 ; raid in Canada 
in 1689, 204 ; Frontenac's inva- 
sion, 230 ; chiefs in England, 
282 ; and Burnet's fur-trade re- 



479 



GENERAL INDEX 



forms, 288 ; first fight with 
Frenchmen, 9. 68-70 5 second 
defeat by the French, 80 ; Cham- 
plain attacks a village, 86-88 5 
and the Albany Congress, 279 5 
wilh Johnson s army, 297 ] atti- 
tude in French and Indian War, 
340 ; attitude in the Revolution, 

10. 193, 335, II. 104, 113 ; 
with St. Leger's expedition, 10. 
33 5» 338-340, 346 ; at Wyo- 
ming massacre, ll. 107-109 5 
at Cherry Valley massacre, 109 ; 
Sullivan's expedition against, 1 10- 
113 ; Mohawk Valley raids, 113. 

Irrigation, criterion of social status in 
America, I. 36 5 use by Pueblo 
Indians, 98 ; by Peruvians, 3. 
115, 122. 

Irving, Washington, authority on 
Columbus, 2. 9 n. ; satire on 
Twiller, 7. 166 ; reception of his 
Knicker backer y 186. 

Isabella, queen of Castile, absorbed 
in Moorish war, 2. 79, 88 5 and 
Columbus's plan, 90, 95-97, 99, 
100 ; pledging of her jewels, 
102 n. ; reception of Columbus 
after first voyage, 127 5 not given 
credit for the discovery, 139 n. ; 
edicts of 1495 and 1497, 178, 
308-311 5 dissatisfaction with Co- 
lumbus, 190, 192, 307 ; recep- 
tion of Columbus returning in 
chains, 196 ; responsibility for 
Bobadilla, 1 96 5 death, 208 5 and 
Indian slavery, 3. 255, 261, 264. 

Isabella, Hispaniola, founded, 2. 
157- 

Jackson, Andrew, at Hanging Rock, 

11. 223. 

Jamaica, discoveiy, 2. 160; Columi- 
bus shipwrecked, 207, 208 j and 
the pirates, 5. 415, 416. 

Tames I. of England, accession, 4. 
64 ; charters Virginia companies, 
71 5 Counterblast to Tobacco^ 206 ; 
and the London Company, 227, 



231,236-239, 251-258; Gon- 
domar's influence, 229— 23 i ,233; 
and Parliament, 230, 244, 257 j 
and Raleigh, 232-235 ; death, 
279 5 hatred of Presbyterianlsm, 
6. 82, 84; statecraft, 83, 118 ; 
consents to Pilgrim migration, 
97 } Doemonologie, g. 142. 

James II. of England, flight, 5. 
185, 6. 339, 8. 208 5 unites the 
northern colonies, 205 5 friend- 
ship for Penn, 343—345 ; Penn's 
trust, 347, 351 5 and the seven 
bishops, 349-3 5 1 . See also York. 

James, Thomas, Puritan minister in 
Virginia, 4. 355, 356. _ 

James City County, origin of its 
name, 5. 45 n. 

Jamestown, Va. , founded, 4. 108 ; 
unhealthful, 178, 5. 141 5 
churches, 189, 285 ; legislature 
meets at, 219, 285 5 size in 1676, 
5. 75 5 Berkeley occupies, 10 1 j 
Bacon captures and burns, loi- 
103; rebuilt, 140; again de- 
stroyed and present condition, 140 ; 
attempt to force growth, 246. 
See alio Virginia. 

Jan Mayen Island, Arctic Ocean, 
possible visit of Columbus, 2. 

59- 

Japan, Marco Polo describes, I. 
3-8, 3355 Toscanelli on, 2. 32 ; 
object of Columbus's first voyage, 
104 ; search for, in the Bahamas, 
1 16 5 and Hayti, 120. 

Japanese junks driven to America, I. 
173. 

Jaques, Christovao, voyage to South 
America, 2. 401. 

Jay, John, Bristol merchant, pro- 
motes maritime expeditions, 2. 
215. 
Jay, John, Huguenot ancestry, 8. 
404 5 peace envoy, suspects and 
thwarts Vergennes, 12. 25 5 and 
the separate negotiations, 27 j 
credit for the negotiations, 41 j 
secretary for foreign affairs, and 



480 



GENERAL INDEX 



the navigation of the Mississippi, 
248 j supports the Constitation, 

408 ; share in the Federalist, 

409 J votes received for vice-pre- 
sidency, 41 7. 

Jay, Pierre, Huguenot, persecution 
and emigration to New York, 8. 

404- 
Jefferson, Thomas, on Virginia local 
government, 5. 43, 49 5 on sla- 
very, 222, 234, 12. 234 ; an- 
cestry, 5. 237 ; Notes on /Virginia, 
302 ; on government, 6. 28 5 
slow growth of desire for inde- 
pendence, 10. 64 ; drafts Decla- 
ration of Independence, 227 5 
character, 227 ; assists British 
prisoners, 4015 escape from Tarle- 
ton, II. 3255 Religious Toleration 
Act, 12. 96 ; influence on cession 
of western territory, 231 ; plan 
of government for territory, 232— 
234; on the Constitution, 370, 

396. 

Jewries, Sir Herbert, royal commis- 
sioner to Virginia, 5. 107 j suc- 
ceeds Berkeley, no. 

Jesuits, Indian missionaries, 3. 360, 
362, 8. 60 5 growth and power, 
g, 73 ; spirit of propaganda, 74, 
100 ; at Port Royal, 75 ; with 
La Saussaye at Mount Desert, 76 5 
treatment by Argall and Dale, 78, 
79 5 supreme in Canada, 100. 

Jews, banished from Spain, 2. 131, 
ii)0, 8. 386-388; migration to 
the Netherlands, 388 ; in Brazil, 
389 5 in New York, 389-391 ; 
in Newport, 389 ; in Philadel- 
{ hia, 392 ; in the southern colo- 
nies, 392. 

' ogues, Isaac, Jesuit missionary, at 
outlet of Lake Superior, 9. 100. 

Tohn II. of Portugal, and Columbus, 
2. 74-76, 125, 140 ; does hom- 
age to pope for discovered land, 
£46 n. 

i ftinson, Edward, TVonder-ivorking 
Frcvidence, 6. 305. 



Johnson, Sir John, loyalist, influ- 
ence, 10. 236, II, 104; joins 
St. Leger's expedition, 10. 335 ; 
at Fort Niagara, 11. 104 ; at bat- 
tle of Newtown, 1 11 . 

Johnson, Sir Nathaniel, governor 
of Carolina, and the Dissenters, 
5. 341 5 repels French and Span- 
ish attack, 341-343. 

Jjhnson, Robert, governor of South 
Carolina, 5. 358; overthrow, 
359 ; and the pirates, 427, 428, 

43°- 

Johnson, Samuel, on the colonies, 
5. 209, 10. 73. 

Johnson, Sir William, influence over 
the Iroquois, 9. 263 ; battle of 
Lake George, 294 300 ; made a 
baronet, 300 ; captures Fort Ni- 
agara, 345-347 j and Brant, II. 
lOI. 

Johnson, William, member of the 
Federal Convention, 12. 271. 

Joliet, Louis, on the Mississippi, 3. 
363, 9. 117-120; map, 3. 369 J 
education, 9. 113, 117; explora- 
tion for copper mines, 114. 

Jon Thordharson, version of saga on 
Vinland, i. 229, 239 n. 

Joncaire-Chabert and Washington at 
Venango, 9. 270, 271. 

Jones, Paul, cruise in the Ranger, 

11. 148; squadron, 150-152; 
status, 152; cruise off British 
coast, 152; fight with the Sera- 
pis, 153-159 ; anecdote, 158 n. ; 
effect of his victory, 159; hon- 
ours, 159 ; Holland harbours, 
159, 188 ; later life, 160. 

Jonsson, Arngrim, on Norse voy- 
ages to America, I. 180 n., 2. 

71- 
Joseph, Master, on size of the earth, 

2. 52 n. 
Judiciary, national, in Virginia plan, 

12. 287 ; provisions in the Con- 
stitution, 359 ; duty of interpret- 
ing the laws, 360. See als« 
Courts. 



481 



GENERAL INDEX 



Jumonville, Coulon de, surprised 
and killed by Washington, 9. 
274. 

Justice, individual, among Indians, 

I. 61 5 in Mexican tribes, 123. 
See also Courts, Judiciary. 

Kalb, Johann de, secret mission to 
America, lO. 279 ; volunteers, 
283 5 sent south, 11. 223 ; killed 
at Camden, 232. 

Kaskaskia, 111., captured by Clark, 

II. 127. 

Kaufmann, Gerard. See Mercator. 

Kavvs, Dakota Indians, I. 48. 

Keith, George, schism in Pennsyl- 
vania, 8. 355. 

Kemp, Richard, secretary of Vir- 
ginia, 4. 345. 

Kendall, George, Virginia coun- 
cillor, executed, 4. 117. 

Kennebec River, Maine, Champlain 
ascends, 9. 53 ; importance to 
Canada, 2345 Indians, 2355 
Shute's conference with the In- 
dians, 239 ; Indians attack English 
settlements, 241 5 French control 
destroyed, 243, 244. 

Kent Island, Md. See Claiborne. 

Kentucky, beginnings, 1 1. 116, 
123 ; state of Transylvania, 123 5 
county in Virginia, 123 ; why 
Virginia retained control, 12. 

239- 

Keppel, Lord, in Rockingham's 
ministry, 12. 6 ; in Shelburne's 
ministry, 19 ; in coalition minis- 
try, 53- 

Kickapoo Indians, I. 57. 

Kidd, William, character, 8. 263 5 
commissioned against the pirates, 
2645 piracy, 268-2735 arrest, 
273 ; trial and execution, 274. 

Kidnapping, in England, 5. 205, 
2175 of Indians, 323, 341. 

Kieft, William, director-general of 
New Netherland, character, 7. 
192, 222, 227; autocracy, 193, 
aio i tax on the Indians, 207, 



2135 calls an assembly on the 
question of war, 209 ; and the 
administrative reforms, 210 5 mas- 
sacres fugitive Indians, 2145 tries 
to shift the responsibility, 215; 
imposes an excise, 221, 222; 
charges against, 223-225 ; re- 
moved, 225 ; attempt to investi- 
gate, 233-235 ; hits back, 235 ; 
drowned, 237. 

King, Rufus, member of the Fed- 
eral Convention, 12. 270. 

King Philip's War, premonitions, 
6. 268-2715 outbreak, 271; pro- 
gress, 272-278 5 Narragansetts 
join, 280 5 probable incentive, 
280 n. 5 attack on Narragansett 
stronghold, 281-285 5 effect of 
Narragansetts' defeat, 285, 290 ; 
fierceness, 286, 288, 303 5 at- 
tack on Lancaster, 290 5 treat- 
ment of prisoners, 291—294 ; 
end, and death of Philip, 294-298} 
Indians sold as slaves, 299 5 am- 
nesty, 300 5 outbreak in Maine, 
301 5 destructiveness, 302, 303 } 
cost, 303 5 Andros's interest, 8. 
55-58, 67; Philip in the Berk- 
shires, 68, 69 n. 

King's Chapel, Boston, founded, 6. 

337- 
King's Mountain, battle, 11. 295- 

297 5 and Bennington, 298. 
Kingship, rudimentary, in America, 

I. 86 5 origin and development, 

127—1305 and Aztec chief-of- 

men, 130 5 and the Inca, 3. 

141-145, 154. 
Kingston, N. Y., Walloon settlers, 

8. 397 5 burned by the British, 

10. 392. 
Kirke, David, attack on Quebec, 

9- 91. 9^- 

Kirke, Percy, viceroy in America, 
6. 333 5 not sent, 334. 

Kirkland, Samuel, influence over Iro- 
quois, I. 88 n., 10. 335. 

Knights of the Golden Horseshoe 
5- 451- 



482 



GENERAL INDEX 



"Know Ye men," Rhode Islanders 
called, 12. 2IO. 

Knowles, John, Puritan minister in 
Virginia, 4. 355, 356. 

Knox, Henry, anctstry, 5. 460 j 
character, 10. 177. 

Knyphausen, Baron Wilhelm von, 
Hessian general in British army, 
10. 189 ; at Brandy wine, 367 j at 
Germantown, 374, 376 5 at 
Monmouth, 11. 73. 

Koopman of New Netherland, du- 
ties, 7. 152. 

Koorn, Nicholas, guards Rensselaer- 
wyck staple right, 7. 244. 

Kosciuszko, Thaddeus, volunteers in 
American cause, 10. 283 ; forti- 
fies Bemis Heights, 382 5 with 
Greene's army, 11. 301. 

Kramer, Gerard. See Mercator. 

Kuyter, Joachim, arrives in New 
Netherland, 7. 199; and Kieft, 
219, 233, 235 5 banished and 
fined,- 236 ; shipwrecked, 237 ; 
justified, 238. 

La Corne, Saint-Luc de, French 
partisan, unsuccessful attack on 
Oswego, g. 346. 

La Cosa, Juan de, in Columbus's 
first voyage, 2. 103 ; in Colum- 
bus's second voyage, 153; map 
227-230, 293-297, 306 n. 
voyage to South America, 248 
319 ; voyages to Pearl Coast 
410 ; high constable of Darien 
4.12, 3. 178 J death, 180. 

La Galissoniere, Marquis de, gov- 
ernor of Canada, sends expedi- 
tion to claim Ohio vallev, g. 
264. 

La Montagne, Jean de, Kieft's coun- 
cillor, 7. 194. 

La Muce, Marquis de, leads Hugue- 
not immigration, 5. 238. 

La Navidad, Hispaniola, started, 2. 
122; destroyed, 155. 

La Plata River, discovery, 2. 407, 
413 J Magellan in, 413. 



La Rabida, monastery in Spain, Co- 
lumbus at, 2. 92. 

La Salle, Robert Cavelier, Sieur dc; 
scheme for PVench empire, 3. 362, 
364, g. 120-124, 132, 258 ; 
expedition to the Ohio, 3. 363, g. 
I11-115; expedition to descend 
the Mississippi, 3. 364-368, g 
124-130 ; takes possession for 
France, 3. 368, g. 130 ; plan for 
a colony, 3. 368, g. 131 ; death. 
3. 369, g. 132 ; birth and early 
life, 109; character, no, 1145, 
123 ; at La Chine, no ; reputed 
earlier trip to the Mississippi, 

La Saussaye, chief of Jesuit colony, 
at Port Roval, g. 76 ; and Ar- 
gall, 76-78: 

La Tour, Charles de, in Acadia, g. 
93-96. 

La Verendrye familv, father and 
sons, explorations to Rocky Moun- 
tains, 3. 3"^. 

Labadists in Marj'land, 5. 165 ; in 
Pennsylvania, 8. 408. 

Ladrone Islands, Magellan discovers, 
2. 442. 

Lafayette, Marquis de, volunteers in 
American cause, 10. 283 ; and 
the Conway Cabal, 11. 51-53; at 
Monmouth, 75 ; before Newport, 
92, 95 ; seeks aid in France, 243 j 
suggests exchange of Andre for 
Arnold, 277 ; tries Andre, 279 j 
campaign against Cornwallis, 323- 
328; cutsoffCornwallis's retreat, 
336. 

Lake Champlain, Champlain crosses, 
3- 359? 9- 6^ '■) strategic value, 
327; operations on, in 1776, 10 
292-295. 

Lake George, named, g. 297 5 bat- 
tle, 297-300. See also Fort Wil- 
liam Henry. 

Lake Huron, discoverv, 3. 359, 9. 
86. 

Lake Michigan, Nicollet's explora- 
tions, g. 99. 



483 



GENERAL INDEX 



Lake Ontario, Champlain crosses, 3. 
359> 9- 87. 

Lake Superior, Jogues at outlet, 
g. 100 5 explored, loi. 

Lake Titicaca, Peru, cradle of Peru- 
vian culture, 3. 102, 

Lan9arote, Portuguese navigator, 
on coast of Africa, 3. 374. 

Lancey, James de, chief justice of 
New York, tries Zenger, 8. 291, 
292 ; Huguenot ancestry, 403. 

Land, Crown rights to soil of colo- 
nies, 4. 279, 6. 140, 332; size 
of grants in Virginia, 5. 27, 28; 
and in Massachusetts, 36 5 entail 
in Virginia, 41 ; colonial pur- 
chases from the Indians, 7. 157, 
8. 187-191, g. 2385 quitrent 
trouble, 8. 18, 179, 360; crown 
lands become state lands, 12. 84. 
See also Boundaries, Charters, 
Grants. 

Landais, Peter, conduct in fight with 
the Serapis, II. 1 57 ; discharged 
from the navy, 160. 

Lan dn dm a-bo k oi IceXdinA., I. 178. 

Lane, Ralph, attempted settlement, 

4- 37-39- 

Langdon, John, member of the 
Federal Convention, 12. 271. 

Langlade, Charles de, French trader, 
destroys Miami trading village, 
g. 267 5 at Fort Duquesne, 288. 

Lansing, John, member of the Fed- 
eral convention, 12. 267 5 quits, 
301 ; opposes the Constitution, 
408. 

Las Casas, Bartolome de, Apostle to 
the Indians, authority on Colum- 
bus, 2. 1,45 History of the Indies, 
^j 3- 3°9 5 attacks Vespucius, 
2. 390-392 5 birth and family, 3. 
259 ; bibliography, 259 n. j early 
years, 260; in Hispaniola, 261 5 
takes orders, 261 ; character, 261, 
272, 310 5 character of his writ- 
ings, 262-264 5 as a slaveholder, 
273; in Cuba, 274 ; becomes an 
abolitionist, 274-276 5 and Fon- 



seca, 276, 284,285 ; andXimenes, 
277 j Protector of the Indians, 
277 5 and introduction of negro 
slavery in America, 278-284; and 
Charles V., 284; attempt at 
colonization, 284-287 ; becomes 
a Dominican, 288 5 obtains de- 
cree against enslavement of Peru- 
vians, 2895 monastery in Guatema- 
b) 2905 idea of Christian conquest, 
291 ; peaceful conquest of Tuzu- 
lutlan, 292—300 ; in Spain, 301 ; 
Destruction of the Indies, 30 1; and 
the New Laws, 301 ; result of 
his labours, 303; bishop of Chiapa, 
305 ; final return to Spain, 306 ; 
controversy with Sepulveda, 306— 
308 ; and Philip II., 308; death, 
310. 
Latimer, Hugh, character and work, 

6. 5^, 53- 

Latitude and longitude, vague calcu- 
lations, I. 362. 

Laudonniere, Rene de. Huguenot, 
leads colony to Florida, 3. 343 j 
escape, 348. 

Laurens, Henry, Huguenot ancestry, 
8. 404 ; president of Congress, 
II. 41 ; agent to Holland, cap- 
tured, 190 ; plan to arm the ne- 
groes, 206 ; peace envoy, 12. 
26. 

Laurie, Garvaine, interest in West 
Jersey, 8. 163. 

Lawrence, Richard, and Bacon's Re- 
bellion, 5. 75,78,89, loi, 103 i 
disappears, 109. 

Laws, Dale's code in Virginia, 4. 1945 
early enactments of Virginia legis- 
lature, 288—294 5 early enact- 
ments in Nortii Carolina, 5. 326; 
Blue, 6. 166 5 Massachusetts' 
first code, 313 ; Duke's, in New 
York, 8. 3. 

Lawson, John, surveyor general of 
North Carolina, book, 5. 351 5 
captured and killed by Tuscaroras, 
351 ; on North Carolina, 363. 

Lawyers, in Virginia, 5. 311. 



484 



GENERAL INDEX 



Le Caron, Joseph, Recollet mission- 
ary, reaches Lake Huron, g. 86. 

Le Moine, Fran9ois, Huguenot 
painter, escape from Florida, 4. 
21 J and Raleigh, 22. 

Leddra, William, Quaker, executed 
in Boston, 6. 240. 

Ledesma, Pedro de, in Columbus's 
fourth voyage, 2. 203 n., 318 j 
in Vespucius's first voyage, 293. 

Ledyard, Isaac, pamphlet war with 
Hamilton, I2. 152. 

Lee, Arthur, commissioner to France, 
10. 280. 

Lee, Charles, with Braddock, g. 
289 5 career and character, 10. 
1 79-1 8 1, 11.84; in Charleston, 
10. 233 ; insubordination and 
treachery, 259-262 5 intrigue 
against Washington, 262, 265 ; 
captured, 265, 266; treatmentin 
captivity, 351 ; treasonable intrigue 
with the Howes, 352-355, 357 5 
on Congress, II. 35 ; exchanged, 
70 ; at Monmouth, 70-78 ; cor- 
respondence with Washington, 81, 
82; arrest and conviction by court- 
martial, 82-84 j abuse of Wash- 
ington, 87; duel with Laurens, 87; 
cashiered, 87 5 death, 87 ; warn- 
ing to Gates, 225 ; compared with 
Arnold, 286. 

Lee, Henry, exploit against Paulus 
Hook, II. 140; "Light Horse 
Harry," 1 41 5 with southern 
army, 301, 303 ; at Guilford, 
310 ; captures Fort Watson, 
315-317 5 takes Fort Motte, 
Fort Granby, and Augusta, 318 ; 
supports the Constitution, 12. 
36S, 403- 

Lee, Richard, position in Virginia, 
5. 22 ; visits Charles IL in exile, 
24 ; Bacon arraigns, 93. 

Lee, Richard (younger), library, 5. 
285. 

Lee, Richard Henry, offers resolu- 
tion for independence, 10. 216 ; 
and the Ordinance of 1787, 12. 



242 ; opposes the Constitution, 
368, 376, 381. 

Legislature, national, in the Federal 
Convention : in the Virginia plan, 
12. 280, 284—286; popularelec- 
tion of representatives, 288 ; com- 
promise on state representation, 
289-301 ; in New Jersey plan, 
290 ; effect of the compromise, 
302, 317; compromise on slave 
representation, 304-311, 317; 
compromise on slave-trade and 
commercial powers, 311-3175 
powers granted, 318-322. See 
also Assemblies, Continental Con- 
gress, General Court, House of 
Burgesses, Representation. 

Leif Ericsson, son of Eric the Red, 
I. 187 ; converted, 187 ; voyage 
to Vinland, 1 88-1 91 ; and Aga- 
memnon, 225 ; called the Lucky, 

239- 

Leisler, Jacob, calls the first Ameri- 
can Congress, 5. 466, 8. 228 j 
accuses Van Rensselaer of heresy, 
1 04 5 refuses to pay customs duty, 
212 ; position and character, 213; 
anti-Catholic mania, 214, 420 ; 
probable motive of his conduct, 
215, 240-242; takes command 
of the fort, 217, 418 ; declara- 
tion, 218 ; proclaims William and 
Mary, 219 ; ignores the king's 
proclamation, 219; commander- 
in-chief, 220, 420 ; assumes the 
government, 220-222 ; unpopu- 
lar tax, 222 ; authority defied, 
223, 420-424; calls an assembly, 
228 ; ignored by the king, 230 ; 
unpopularity, 232 ; novels based 
on his times, 232; marriage of 
his daughters, 233 ; defies In- 
goldsby, 235 ; fires on the king's 
troops, 236 ; resists Sloughter, 
236, 424 ; arrest, 237 ; trial and 
execution, 237-240, 425-430; 
execution ill advised, 242 ; attain- 
der reversed, 242, 265. 

Leislerian party in New York, 8, 



485 



GENERAL INDEX 



250 ; charges against Fletcher, 
265 ; Bellomont favours, 266 5 
gains control, 268 ; violent pro- 
ceedings, 275, 276 ; discomfiture, 
_277. 
Leisler's Rebellion, 8. 209-242, 

417-431- 

Lenox, Mass., convention in 1786, 
12. 213. 

Leonard, Daniel, loyalist, on com- 
mittees of correspondence, 10. 

Lepe, Diego de, voyage to Brazil, 2. 
322. 

Lery, Baron de, attempted colony on 
Sable Island, g. 6. 

Lescarbot, Marc, in Acadia with 
Monts, g. 51 ; as an author, 51 5 
pageant for Poutrincourt, 55. 

Letters of marque, obtained by pi- 
rates, 5. 408 5 Congress issues, 

10. 206. 

Leverett, John, governor of Massa- 
chusetts, reception of Randolph, 
6. 321. 

Lewis, Andrew, pioneer, at battle of 
Point Pleasant, 11. 122. 

Lewis, Meriwether, expedition to 
Oregon, 3. 376. 

Lexington and Concord, Mass., bat- 
tle, 10. 142-1 50. 

Lexington, Ky., founded and named, 

11. 123. 

Libraries in Virginia, 5. 283-285. 

Ligneris, French partisan, attempt 
to relieve Fort Niagara, g. 346. 

Lima, Peru, founded, 3. 226. 

Lincoln, Benjamin, threatens Bur- 
goyne's rear, 10. 321, 347 5 com- 
mands southern department, li. 
203, 205, 210; attack on Sa- 
vannah, 211 ; ability, 2145 
surrenders Charleston, 215; at 
Yorktown, 340 ; commands 
militia in Shays's Rebellion, 12. 
215-217. 

Linschoten, Hans Hugo van, voyage 
in the Arctic, 7. 64. 

Lisbon, Portugal, founded, l. 345 ; 



Columbus at, 2. V9, 22 j centre 
of nautical science, 21. 

Literature, in colonial Virginia, 4. 
272, 5. 297-302 ; in the Neth- 
erlands, 7. 20 5 in colonial New 
York, 8. 3315 in colonial Penn- 
sylvania, 372, 377. 

Livingston, R. R., opposes inde- 
pendence, 10. 216; on commit- 
tee to draft Declaration of In- 
dependence, 227 5 supports the 
Constitution, 12. 408. 

Livingston, Robert, secretary of 
board of Indian commissioners, 8. 
66 ; early life, 66 ; and Kidd, 
264 ; Leislerian charges against, 
275 5 dismissed from office, 276 ; 
restored, 277 5 advises colonial 
consolidation, 10. 6. 

Livingston, William, member of the 
Federal Convention, 12. 271. 

Llamas of Peru, 3. 113, 121. 

Lloyd, David, position in Pennsyl- 
vania, 8. 371. 

Lloyd, Thomas, search for island of 
Brazil, 2. 21 c. 

Loaysa, Garcia de, 3. 317. 

Local prejudice in 1783, 12. 73 ; a 
survival, 74. 

Local self-government, in Iroquois 
confederacy, i. 89 5 systems in 
America, 4. 75 ; New England, 
5- 35-40, 48, 7. 257-259; con- 
ditions in Virginia, 5. 41-49, 114- 
118 5 Maryland, 171, 172; ves- 
tries in South Carolina, 378 j 
crushed by Roman system, 6. 1 7, 
I 8 ; of Germanic tribes, 20, 29 ; 
in Greece, 26 ; essential to stable 
nation-making, 27 5 long struggle 
for, 28 ; establishment in England, 
32 5 difficult to harmonize with 
strong nationality, 42 ; town 
meetings in Plymouth, 100 5 in 
Boston on surrender of charter, 
3325 and successful colonization, 
7. 151 5 lacking in New Nether- 
land, 1525 plans to subvert colo- 
nial, 10. 3, 5 J paramount in> 



486 



GENERAL INDEX 



portance to the colonies, 7 ; in 
Albany Plan, 9 5 unofficial legisla- 
tion in Massachusetts, 68 5 Crown 
attacks on, 89 ; town meetings 
and the Regulating Act, 114, 
125 ; town meetings forbidden by 
(Quebec Act, 115; colonies in- 
struct Congress to preserve, 209, 
212, 220 5 strong sentiment for, 
in 1783, 12. 67. See aho Re- 
presentation 

Locke, John, and Shaftesbury, 5. 
3185 Fundamental Constitutions, 
3195 and Penn, 8. 353, 354. 

Logan, James, character and ability, 
8. 370. 

Logan, John (Tagjutahe), Mingo 

. chief, family slain, II. 118, 119 5 
character, 118 5 speech, I20j 
death, 121. 

Lok, Michael, map, 3. 356, 4. 72, 
7. 73, 100 j opinion of slavery, 
4. 18. 

Lollardism in England, 6. 49-51, 
61-66, 7. 44-46. 

London, Bishop of, jurisdiction over 
colonial church, 5. 305. 

London Company, first charter, 4. 
71-77, 6. 90 ; original members, 
4. 77-83 5 first expedition and 
instructions, 84—90 5 impatient for 
returns, 133, 1455 Smith's an- 
swer to complaints, 1 4 7-1 51 ; 
second charter and membership, 
169-1725 communistic program, 
173; code of laws, 1945 third 
charter, 209 ; lotteries, 210 5 
becomes a political force, 211— 
214; factions, 215-217, 242- 
244 ; control by king's opponents, 
217, 6. 96 ; grants representation 
to Virginia, 4. 219-221 ; king's 
hostility and interference, 236- 
239, 245 5 Butler's attack, 245- 
251 5 overthrow, 251-2595 re- 
cords, 259—261 5 influence of 
overthrow on development of Vir- 
ginia, 261, 278-2845 and on 
Massachusetts Bay Company, 2775 



grants land to Pilgrims, 6. 97. 
See aho Virginia. 

Londonderry, N. H., settled, 6. 
171. 

Long Island, Dutch settlements and 
purchase, 7. 135, 201 5 value as 
a wampum field, 203, 204 5 Eng- 
lish settlements, 204 5 Stirling's 
claim, 291 5 disaffection of Eng- 
lish towns, 310, 328 5 league of 
English towns, 328 5 granted to 
York, 330 5 rival colonial claims, 
8. 5 5 included in New York, 7. 
demand for representation, 26 ; 
protest against second Dutch gov- 
ernment, 30 5 question of alle- 
giance to New York, 46 5 in 
1769, 89-965 battle, 10. 242- 
246. See aho Brooklyn Heights. 

Lord Dunmore's War, 11, 117— 
122. 

Lords of Trade, organization, 6. 
3195 reports and complaints of 
royal governors, lo. 2-4 5 desire 
colonial union, 5 5 objections to 
Albany Plan, 12. 

Lothrop, Thomas, ambushed, 6. 
278. 

Loudoun, Earl of, English command- 
er-in-chief in America, 9. 306 ; 
character, 307 5 plans to attack 
Ticonderoga, 307 5 futile expedi- 
tion against Louisburg, 3105 re- 
called, 317. 

Louis XIV. of France, and William 
III., 5. 1855 subsidizes Charles 
II., 6. 328 5 designs on New 
York, 8. 202 5 and the Hugue- 
nots, 398—400 5 and Canada, 9. 
1 01. See also France. 

Louisburg, Cape Breton Island, for- 
tified, 9. 2495 capture in 1745, 
250-257 5 Loudoun's expedition 
against, in French and Indian 
War, 310 5 strategic value, 327 5 
restored to France by treaty of Aix 
la Chapelle, 328 5 situation and 
defences, 3285 capture in 1758, 
329-332. 



487 



GENERAL INDEX 



Louisiana, possession taken for 
France, 3. 368, g. 130; La 
Salle's attempted colony, 1315 
development, 258. See a/so Can- 
ada, Mississippi River. 

Louisville, Ky., fortress, 11. 129. 

Lovelace, Lord, governor of New 
York, 8. 280 ; death, 281. 

Lovelace, Francis, governor of New 
York, 8. 20, 25 5 on the estab- 
lishment of a post, 22-24 5 land 
purchases and debts, 37 ; Dutch 
confiscations, 37 ; arrest, 37 ; 
death, 43. 

Lovell, James, in Conway Cabal, 

11. 40. 

Lovewell, John, fight with the In- 
dians, g. 245-247 ; death, 247 j 
ballad on the fight, 247. 

Lowndes, Rawlins, opposes the Con- 
stitution, 12. 398, 399. 

Loyalists, in middle colonies, 10. 
135; disconcerted by Concord, 
I 50 ; leave Boston, 202 5 disarm- 
ing recommended, 206 ; defeated 
in North Carolina, 207 ; British 
overestimate aid of, 235, 306, 
310, 311, 329; in St. Leger's 
expedition, 335, 339 5 leave Phil- 
adelphia, II. 68 ; tried for treason, 
69, 204; in New York, 104, 

12. 1455 at Fort Niagara, 11. 1045 
character of frontier, 104, iii, 
1 24 5 in the South, 200 5 defeated 
by Pickens, 203 ; views of mod- 
erate, 251 5 at Yorktown, 340 ; 
relation to the Revolution, 352- 
354, 12. 33 j question of indem- 
nification, II, 14, 33-38, 50, 
144, 154; post-bellum persecu- 
cion, 142-144, 153; laws against, 
150-152; emigration, 146, 1545 
effect of persecution and emigra- 
tion, 154-158. 

Lucas, Nicholas, interest in West 
Jersey, 8. 163. 

Ludwell, Philip, opposes Bacon, 5. 
loi, 104, 119 ; governor of Car- 
olina, 339. 



Ludwell, Thomas, opposes Bacon, 
5. 104, 121. 

Luque, Fernando de, share in Peri> 
vian expeditions, 3. 206, 207. 

Lussan, Raveneau de, buccaneer, 5. 
407, 420. 

Lutherans, treatment in New Nether- 
land, 7. 269. 

Lyman, Phineas, Johnson's lieuten- 
ant, g. 295 5 credit for battle at 
Lake George, 300. 

Macaulay, Lord, charges against 
Penn, 8. 345-347, 353 "• 

McClure, Sir Robert, finds north- 
west passage, 3. 320. 

McClurg, James, as a writer, 5. 
302. 

McCrea, Jane, episode in Burgoyne's 
campaign, 10. 324-327. 

Macdonald, Donald, commands loyal- 
ists at Moore's Creek, 10. 208. 

Macdonald, Flora, in North Caro- 
lina, 5. 372, 10. 207. 

McDowell, Charles, partisan, at 
King's Mountain, 11. 295, 297. 

Mace, Samuel, searches for White's 
colony, 4. 64. 

Macrobius on the torrid zone, I, 

355- 

Madagascar, pirate rendezvous, 8. 
259. 

Madeira Islands, known to Phoeni- 
cians, I. 348 5 visited by Portu- 
guese, 369 5 colonized, 370. 

Madison, James, education, char- 
acter, and ability, 5. 292, 12. 
268-270 5 share in T/ie Federalist, 
5. 297, 12. 409 5 radical remedy 
for defects in Articles of Confed- 
eration, 118; on Ordinance of 
1787, 244; suggests a commer- 
cial interstate convention, 254 ; 
member of the Federal Conven- 
tion, 268 ; journal of the conven- 
tion, 272 ; author of Virginia 
plan, 276 5 in Virginia ratifying 
convention, 403 ; considers the 
Union indissoluble, 412, 



488 



GENERAL INDEX 



Madoc, Welsh prince, voyage, I, 

49- 

Magaw, Robert, defends Fort Wash- 
ington, lo. 257. 

Magellan, Ferdinand, birth and char- 
acter, 2. 419-421, 443 ; sources 
of information, 419 n., 430 j 
early years in East Indies, 421- 

424 ; service in Morocco, 424 ; 
plan to circumnavigate the earth, 

425 ; plan rejected by Portugal, 

426 ; enters service of Spain, 

427 ; expedition fitted out Ly 
Spain, 428 5 fleet and crew, 428 5 
Portuguese machinations, 429 5 
crossing of the Atlantic, 430 ; 
winter quarters in Patagonia, 4325 
mutiny, 432-436 5 voyage through 
the strait, 43 75 on the Pacific, 438- 
442 5 at the Ladrones, 442 5 at 
the Philippines, 442 5 death, 443- 
445 ; massacre of leading men of 
the crew, 445 5 voyage continued 
to the Moluccas, 445 5 fate of the 
Trinidad, 446 ; return of the 
Victoria, 447-449 ; greatness of 
the voyage, 449 ; honors for sur- 
vivors, 450. 

Magellan Straits, seen by Jaques, 2. 
402 ; on Schoner's globe, 425 5 
Magellan's passage, 437. 

Magna Charta secured, 6. 36. 

Maine, Popham's colony, 4. 83, 6. 
92 5 Argall at Mount Desert 
Island, 4. 201, g. 76-78 ; Gor- 
ges's colony, 6. 188 ; Tarratine 
War, 301 5 annexed to Massachu- 
setts, 325, 344 ; Gorges' s claim 
valid, 3255 sold to Massachusetts, 
325 5 Duke of York's claim, 8. 
8 ; Andros takes possession, 71 ; 
French and English claims, 9. 
234 5 advance of settlement, 237. 
See a/so Kennebec River. 

Malleus Maleficantm, 9. 142. 

Man, antiquity, I. 13 n.-i5 n. 5 
reason for his superiority, 70, 
71 n. 

MancoCapac Yupanqui, Inca,submits 



to Pizarro and proclaimed, 3. 224 j 
insurrection, 227 j defeated, 229 j 
overthrow, 231 ; mountain fast- 
ness, 243 ; death, 245. 

Mandans, Indian group, i. 48, 57; 
mound-builders, 50, 1685 circular 
communal houses, 94-96. 

Manhattan Island, N. Y., and No- 
rumbega, 7. 82, 89 ; French fur- 
traders' village on, 90 ; Dutch 
traders at, 118; Argall warns 
them, 1 19 5 meaning of the name, 
1395 purchased, 140. See also 
New Amsterdam, New York 
City. 

Manichaan belief and polity, 6. 45. 

Manors (patroonships), system in 
Maryland, 5. 169-1725 effect of 
slavery, 1725 establishment in 
New Netherland, 7. 154-159; 
inducement, 1595 failure of first, 
I 59-1 61 ; success of Rensselaer- 
wyck, 161, 240 ; attempt to in- 
troduce indented servants, 197 ; 
disputes between Rensselaerwyck 
and the government, 242—249 ; 
system in New York, 8. 310 ; 
Schuyler's manor, 3 1 1-3 1 7 5 abo- 
lition of privileges, 12. 84. 

Mansfield, Lord, on slaves in England, 
5. 234; on libel, 8. 2955 advises 
coercion of Boston, 10. iii. 

Manufacturers, early attempts in Vir- 
ginia, 4. 144, 270 ; conditions 
in colonial Virginia, 5. 241-245, 
253 5 lacking in Carolinas, 366, 
381 5 in the Netherlands, 7. 17, 
18, 40; influence of Dutch on 
English, 39-43, 52 ; forbidden to 
the patroons, 157 5 prohibition 
removed, 198. 

Marchena, Antonio de, Spanish friar, 
and Juan Perez, 2. 93 n. ; in 
Columbus's second expedition, 153. 

Marcos de Nizza, Franciscan friar, 
in Peru, 3. 333 ; journey to 
Zuni, 334-337 5 accused of false- 
hood, 334 n., 339. 

Margarite, Pedro, in Columbus's 



489 



GENERAL INDEX 



second expedition, 2. 153 ; leads 
disorders and deserts, 171 5 com- 
plains against Columbus, 1 8 1. 
Marin, French officer, expedition to 

the Ohio valley, 9. 268. 
Marin, French partisan, attempt to 

relieve Fort Niagara, g. 346. 
Marina, Indian woman, services to 

Cortes, 3. 49- 
Marion, Francis, partisan commander, 
10. 221 ; operations, 235, 299, 
303 ; captures Fort Watson, 315- 
3175 takes Forts Motte and 
Granby, 318. 
Markham, William, deputy-governor 

of Pennsylvania, 8. 179. 
Markland, identity, I. 189 ; ship 

from, 259. 
Marquette, Jacques, on the Missis- 
sippi, 3. 363, 9. 1 18-120 J char- 
acter, 1 1 7 5 death, 1 20. 
Marshall, John, greatness, 5. 311 5 
at Great Bridge, 10. 211 ; sup- 
ports the Constitution, 12. 404. 
Martha's Vineyard, named, 4. 65 ; 
Duke of York's claim, 8. 7 j 
plundered by British, 11. 132. 
Martin, John, Virginia councillor, 
4. 108 5 and the House of Bur- 
gesses, 288. 
Martin, Josiah, governor of North 
Carolina, rouses the loyalists, lO. 
208. 
Martin, Luther, counters Howe's 
proclamation, lO. 365 ; member 
of the Federal Convention, 12. 
211; quits, 302. 
Martin, Richard, defends London 
Company in Parliament, 4. 213, 
214. 
Mary, " Bloody," of England, re- 
sult of persecutions, 6. 67. 
Martyr, Peter, source on Columbus, 
2. 4 ; doubts whether Columbus 
reached Asia, 130 n. ; on Ves- 
pucius, 242 n. ; on Giovanni 
Vespucci, 244 n. ; on Pinzon's 
voyage to Mexican coast, 291 5 on 
Gomez's voyage, 3. 322. 



Maryland, charter and government, 
4. 311, 316, 329-334, 8. 176- 
178 5 named, 4. 311 } religious 
toleration, 317-319, 362-365; 
asylum for Catholics, 318; set- 
tlement, 320; relations with the 
Indians, 321 ; early prosperity, 
322; population in 1675, 323; 
opposition in Virginia, 335, 337, 
345 ; trouble with Claiborne, 

336, 339-343, 350-353, 359- 
361 ; Stone governor, 361 ; 
granted to Sir William Davenant, 
361 ; Puritan immigration and 
designs, 365-367, 5. 394 ; con- 
trol of parliamentary commission- 
ers, 4. 369, 370 5 Catholics dis- 
franchised and Puritans control, 
370 ; civil war, 371 ; proprietary 
regains control, 372, 5. 153 5 at- 
tempt to restrict tobacco planting, 
59 ; dutv on tobacco, 154 ; Fen- 
dair s revolt, 155-160 ; Quakers in, 
161, 178; dispute with the Dutch, 
162 ; York and Penn infringe 
on Baltimore's claim, 166—169; 
manorial government, 169-172; 
effect of slavery on the manors, 
172; assembly and proprietary, 
173-180; nepotism, 175; suf- 
frage restricted, 1 79 ; incipient re- 
bellion in svmpathy with Bacon's, 
181 ; proprietary and royal cus- 
toms duties, 182-184; 3"ti- 
Catholic panic and Coode's Rebel- 
lion, 185-187 ; overthrow of the 
palatinate, 188; Copley first royal 
governor, 188 ; Church of Eng- 
land established, 188; anti-Cath- 
olic measures, 188, 192-194, 
197; Annapolis capital, 188; 
unpopularity and character of es- 
tablished church, 190, 199 ; relief 
of Protestant dissenters, 192 ; mil- 
itary requisitions, 195 ; restora- 
tion of the palatinate, 196 ; popu- 
lation in 1715, 196; popularity 
of the palatinate, 199, 10. 220; 
sympathy with the colonial com- 



490 



GENERAL INDEX 



mon cause, 5. 199, 439, 10. 221 5 
social conditions, 5. 3125 indus- 
tiial change, 3135 represented in 
the Congress of 1690, 441 5 ille- 
gal taxation in 1770, 10. 89 ; 
instructs for independence, 221 ; 
gallant conduct of troops, 244 5 
proprietary not indemnified, 12. 
84 ; allows emancipaticn, 87 5 
paper money, 202 5 demands ces- 
sion of state western claimis to the 
United States, 226-228, 230 ; 
ratifies the Constitution, 397. See 
a/so Calvert. 

Mascoutin Indians, g. 99. 

Maskoki (Muskogi) Indian group, I. 

50, 57, 5- 35°- 

Mason, George, sympathy with Ba- 
con's Rebellion, 5. 121. 

Mason, George, statesman, on slav- 
ery, 5. 222 5 mode of plantation 
life, 270-273, 289 ; member of 
the Federal Convention, 12. 271 j 
refuses to sign the draft, 314, 363 5 
opposes the Constitution, 403. 

Mason, John, grant in New Eng- 
land, 9. 115, 137, 318, 324. 

Mason, John, in Pequot War, 6. 
159. 

Massachusetts, government, 4. 277, 
315, 6. 116, 3445 land grants, 
5. 365 political training of its 
local government, 51 5 restrictions 
on immigration, 213 ; trade with 
Carolina, 328, 330 ; conflicts be- 
tween governors and assemblies, 
439, 9. 242, 243, 10. 4, 16 ; 
settlement, j. 125-127; estab- 
lishment of representation, 127— 
1295 bicameral legislature, 129- 
1 3 1 5 character of General Court, 

130, 211, 238, 313, 9. 185 5 
ecclesiastical polity, 6. 1 3 i 5 the- 
ocracy, establishment, opposition, 
and overthrow, 132, 139, 150, 
211, 213, 216, 241, 250, 309- 

314, 317, 3^3, 336, 344, 8. 

131, 9. 198-202, 205; condi- 
tions in 1634, 6. 133 ; population 



in 1634, 1335 in 1643, 19a; in 
1675, 323 ; Harvard College, 
134, 9. 206-211 ; enmiity in 
England, 6. 136, 141, 244, 318 ; 
charter endangered, 137, 195, 
249, 328, 331 ; prepares to resist 
Charles I., 138; Roger Williams 
episode, 138— 141 ; Antinomian 
episode, 142-145 ; migration to 
Connecticut, 152—154; annexes 
New Hampshire, 187 ; relation 
with Parliament, 194-196, 211, 
215 ; Gorton episode, 203-211 ; 
Presbyterian cabal, 213-215; 
Cambridge Platform, 216; peise- 
cution of Baptists, 216-224; 
persecution of Quakers, 231-243, 
8. 130 ; demands of Charles II., 
6. 243, 248, 317, 318, 325, 
327, 328 ; coins money, 244, 
318; royal commissioners, 249, 
318, 7. 331, 332, B. 8-11 ; ad- 
ministration of justice, 6. 313; 
first legal code, 313 ; Halfway 
Covenant, 314—316, 9. 200, 
221, 225, 231 ; general attitude 
toward the Stuarts, 6. 317; re- 
ception of Randolph, 321 ; his 
intrigues, 321-323, 328 ; birth 
of Toryism, 322, 9. 201 ; loses 
New Ham.pshire, 6. 324 ; relation 
with Maine, 325, 344 ; refuses to 
surrender charter, 331 ; charter 
annulled, 332 ; legal effect, 333 ; 
Church of England introduced, 
336; t^-ranny of Andros, 338, 8. 
206, g. 202 ; insurrection, 6. 
340, 8. 208 ; old government 
reestablished, 6. 341 ; acquires 
Plym.outh, Maine, and Acadia, 
344 ; new charter, 344, g. 202 ; 
and the Duke of York's claim, 
8. 7 ; refuses to aid Fletcher, 
255 ; early witchcraft trials, g, 
145-149 ; liberalism comipared 
with Connecticut, 212—215, 220; 
Great Awakening, 226-232 ; ex- 
pedition against Kennebec Indians, 
243 ; bounty for Indian scalps, 



491 



GENERAL INDEX 



0.4 5 ; share in the Louisburg ex- 
pedition, 251 ; monument Co 
George, Viscount Howe, 321 j 
troops for campaign of 1759, 
343 5 advises concerted action on 
Stamp Act, 10. 19 ; proposes 
Stamp Act Congress, 24 ; Stamp 
Act declaration, 26 5 petition to 
the king and circular letter to 
other colonies, 55 5 refuses to re- 
scind, 58; assemibly dissolved, 58, 
59 ; unofficial legislation, 68 5 
illegal local officers, 89 ; salary of 
the judges, 92, 93, 97 ; com- 
mittees of correspondence, 94 ; 
Regulating Act, 113, 124, 138, 
II. 3 5 1 j asks sympathy of other 
colonies, 10. 121 ; response, 121 ; 
selects delegates to Congress, 123 ; 
political standards, 138; prepares 
for war, 125, 127, 12,9; Sutfolk 
County Resolves, 127 ; provin- 
cial congress, 1285 committee of 
safety, 1 29 j militia organized, 
1295 declared in rebellion, 1325 
passive resistance, 138 ; reverts to 
old charter, 1855 instructs for 
independence, 213; relation to 
Charles II. and George III., II. 
351 ; emancipates slaves, 12. 88 5 
attempt to disestablish Congrega- 
tional church, 89-91 5 claim to 
Vermont, 180 ; financial and 
commercial distress, 204, 210- 
2125 attempt to issue paper 
money, 212; Shays' s Rebellion, 
213-221 J cedes western terri- 
tory, 224, 229 5 ratification of 
the Constitution, 379-397. See 
also Boston, Colonies, King Phil- 
ip's War, Massachusetts Bay 
Company, New England, Puri- 
tans, Salem Village, and battles 
by name. 

Massachusetts Bay, early settlements 
in and near, 6. 109-113. 

Massachusetts Bay Company, lesson 
from London Company, 4. 277 j 
origin, 6. 1 1 3 j grant of land. 



114; sends Endicott to Naum- 
keag, 115; granted royal charter, 
1 1 6 j settlers sent out, 1 1 7 5 gov- 
ernment transferred to America, 
123 5 king's motives in granting 
charter, 1 35. See also Massa- 
chusetts. 

Massasoit, Wampanoag chief, and 
the PilgrimiS, 4. 184, 6. 102 j 
shelters Roger Williams, 141 ; 
death, 267. 

Massa-wachusett Indians, friendly, 

6. 1475 converts, 265. 
Matanzas Inlet, Florida, origin of 

name, 3. 351. 

Mather, Cotton, on Quakers, 6. 
229 ; on theocracy, 250 5 attain- 
ments, 9. 149 j character, 1505 
and the Salem witchcraft, 1 50- 
I52» 155, 170-173, 186, 197; 
connection with the Goodwin 
witchcraft case, 152-155 ; reli- 
gious conservatism, 197, 205, 
206 } and Harvard College, 209. 

Mather, Increase, on suffrage, 6. 
3155 against surrender of charter, 
332; in London, 341, 8. 207, 
208, g. 202 5 Cases of Consciencey 
186 5 religious conservatism, 197, 
206 J and Harvard College, 203, 
208. 

Mathews, British general, marauding 
expedition to Virginia, 11. 132. 

Mathews, Samuel, opposition to Ma- 
ryland, 4. 345, 372 ; and Har- 
vey, 348, 349 5 governor of 
Virginia, 368 ; household, 5. 6 ; 
death, 23. 

Maverick, Samuel, settled in Massa- 
chusetts Bay, 6. iii, 126; in 
Presbyterian cabal, 214 ; enmity 
to New England, 244 ; royal 
commissioner, 249, 7. 331, 8. 
8 ; intrigue against New Nether- 
land, 7. 326. 

May, Cornelius, in Delaware Bay, 

7. 121 5 first director-general of 
New Netherland, 134. 

Mayas, Central American Indian^ 



492 



GENERAL INDEX 



culture status, i. 25, 36, 39 5 
compared with Mexicans, 150— 
154, 159 J hieroglyphics, 151, 
151 n.-i53 n., 155; age of 
ruined cities, 154—159; hostility 
to Cordova, 3. 32 ; compared 
with Peruvians, 172—176. 
iVlayhew, Jonathan, suggests com- 
mittees of correspondence, 10. 

Mayhew, Thomas, Indian mission- 
ary, 6. 255. 

Maypure Indians, 3. 95. 

Meade, William, revives Episcopal 
church in Virginia, 12. 98. 

Mecklenburg County Resolves, real 
and legendary, 10. 150-152. 

Medina-Celi, Duke of, and Colum- 
bus's plan, 2. 89, 4. 59. 

Megapolensis, John, intolerance, 7. 
269. 

Meherrin Indians, 5. 350. 

Mela, Pomponius, on an encompass- 
ing ocean, I. 350; on the five 
zones, 353 ; on the antipodal 
world, 3545 authority in Spanish 
peninsula, 365 5 influence on early 
cartography of New World, 2. 
355-357, 372, 378, 380. 

Melville, Andrew, on church and 
state, 6. 82. 

Melyn, Cornelius, arrival in New 
Netherland, 7. 199; settlement 
on Staten Island, 207 ; and Kieft, 
219, 233, 235 5 banished and 
fined, 236; shipwrecked, 237; 
justified, 238 ; return with man- 
damus to Stuyvesant, 252. 

Menard, Rene, Jesuit missionary, 
explores Lake Superior, g. lOi. 

Mendoza, Andrea Hurtado de, vice- 
roy of Peru, 3. 240. 

Mendoza, Luis de, with Magellan, 
2. 428, 433, 435. 

Menefie, George, and Harvey, 4. 

348, 349- 
Vlenendez de Aviles, Pedro, charac- 
ter, 3. 344, 350; destroys Hu- 
guenot colony, 345—350} 4. 21. 



Mennonites, persecution and migr* 
tion to Pennsylvania, 8. 407, 

Menomonee Indians, I. 51. 

Mercator, Gerard, projections, 2. 
385 5 use of term America, 385. 

Merchants' Exchange, first New 
York, 8. 25. 

Merrymount, Mass., settlement, 6. 
Ill ; dispersed, iii, 127. 

Metacom. i)ee Philip. 

Methodists, and the Church of Eng- 
land, 12. loi ; growth in Amer- 
ica, loi 5 American church sepa- 
rated from the English, 102 ; first 
bishops, 102. 

Mexicans, Pueblo Indian group, Span- 
ish misconceptions of their societv, 
I. Ill; criticism of Spanish views, 
114; Morgan's explanations, 
116; remains, 116; Bandelier's 
researches, 117; Aztecs a type, 
150. See also Aztecs, Mexico, 
Pueblo Indians. 

Mexico, Vespucius on coast, 2. 273— 
277 ; prehistoric, 3. 4 ; tradi- 
tional races, 5—8, 10 ; Nahua in- 
vasion, 8 ; coat of arms of present 
republic, 12; Cordova's expedi- 
tion, 31-33 ; Grijalva's expedi- 
tion, 34-36 ; Spanish expectations 
concerning, 35 ; Cortes on coast, 
37 ; Cortes's inland march, 39— 
52 ; Narvaez and Cortes, 78-80 ; 
conditions and efi^ects of Spanish 
conquest, 88—90. See also Az- 
tecs, Mexicans, Mexico City. 

Mexico City, founded, i. 97, 3. 
II ; composit ; pueblo, I. iio; 
appearance, 150 ; situation, 3. 12, 
16, 55; tributary area, 16; op- 
pression of tributary pueblos, l 8 ; 
first contact with Spanish, 18 ; 
Cortes before, 52-54 ; historical 
sources, 54 n. ; houses, 55, 60 j 
population, 57 ; gardens, 57 n. j 
phratries, 59 ; dress of inhabitants, 
60; food, 61-64; m.arkets, 645 
currency, 64 ; worship, 65—68 5 
situation of Cortes in, 69-71 j 



493 



GENERAL INDEX 



seizure of Montezuma, 71, 74- 
76 j and of other chiefs, 77 5 Al- 
varado precipitates conflict, 78-8 i j 
deposition and death of Monte- 
zuma, 82; retreat of Cortes, 835 
siege, 85-87. See a/so Aztecs. 

Miami Indians in Ohio valley, I. 
51, g. 263 ; and the French and 
English, 266. 

Miantonomo, Narragansett chief, 
defeated by Uncas, 6. 205 ; slain, 
207-209; effect of death, 263. 

Michel le Basque, buccaneer, 5. 
409. 

Micmac Indians, I. 52. 

Middleton, attacks London Com- 
pany, 4. 212. 

Mifflin, Thomas, in Conway Cabal, 
II. 40, 43, 54 ; president of 
Congress, on Washington's retire- 
ment, 12. 62. 

Milborne, Jacob, Leisler's lieutenant, 
8. 223 ; marries Leisler's daugh- 
ter, 233; arrest, 2375 trial and 
execution, 237—240, 431. 

Milford, Conn., settled, 6. 165. 

Military colonies, in Peru, 3. 136- 
1385 rudiments in Mexico, 
136 n. 

Militia, Washington urges uniform 
organizatiun, 12. 64. See also 
Army, Minute men. 

Miller, Thomas, acting governor of 
North Carolina, and Culpeper, 5. 
329-332. 

Milton, John, advanced views, 6. 
235 ; books burnt, 331. 

Mingo Indians in Ohio valley, 9. 
263 5 English allies, 341. 

Minisink, N. Y., sacked by Brant, 
II. no. 

Minnitarees, Indian group, I. 48 ; 
mound-builders, 50. 

Minorca, importance, 1 1. 1765 of- 
fered to Russia, 177 5 captured by 
Spanish, 346. 

Minuit, Peter, Director-general of 
New Netherland, 7. 139 ; discus- 
sion with Bradford, 143 ; recalled. 



163; leads colony to New Sweden, 
276. 

Minute men, organization, 10. 129J 
familiar with war, 129 ; value, 
148, 328. 

Mischianza in honour of Howe, 1 1. 
67. 

Missions. See Indians. 

Mississippi River, discovery, 3. 316; 
Soto's expedition, 340 ; French 
explorations, 362-369, g. 100, 
106,111, 115,118-120, 130J 
question of free navigation, 12. 
246-250, 401. 

Mississippi valley, claims and occu« 
pation in 1782, 12. 21. 

Missouri Indians, I. 48. 

Missouri River, discovered, g. 119. 

Mobile, Ala. , origin of the name, 3. 
340 n. ; captured by Spanish, il. 
167. 

Mohawk Valley, N. Y., German 
settlers, 8. 303 5 suffering during 
the Revolution, 11. 113. 

Mohawks, Iroquois tribe, i. 54 ; 
meaning of word, 60 n. 5 migra- 
tion to Canada, 88 n. 5 segregated 
from the Onondagas, g. 47. See 
also Iroquois. 

Mohegan Indians, I. 51 ; phratry 
and clan names, 84 ; and the Pe- 
quots and Mohawks, 6. 148, 7. 
141, 172, 174, 332 ; defeat 
Narragansetts, 6. 205—208 5 and 
the English, 263, 269. 

Molucca Islands, Polo describes, i. 
328, 3355 Portuguese reach, 2. 
418 5 controversy over owner- 
ship, 3. 318 ; Spanish claim ceded, 

319- 
Money, in ancient Mexico, 3. 64 ; 
of the Chibchas, 94 ; tobacco cur- 
rency, 5. 25, 59, 251-2545 coined 
in Massachusetts, 6. 244, 318 ; 
wampum as, 7. 202 5 chaot"^ 
condition in early New York, <i. 
54 ; Massachusetts issues paper. 
229 ; New York issues paper, 
283 5 Congress issues paper, i©. 



494 



GENERAL INDEX 



187; depreciated currency, 11. 
30, 237-239, 12. 1945 specie 
drain, 196 5 coins in circulation 
in 1785, 196 ; state craze for pa- 
per, 200—210, 212 ; states forbid- 
den to issue paper, or to coin, 323; 
question of national paper, under 
the Constitution, 323-327. 
Mongol empire, power, i. 319; 
character, 319; friars visit, 320; 
Polos in, 323-327 5 why not 
Christianized, 324 ; overthrow, 

334- 

Monk, George, Duke of Albemarle, 
a proprietor of Carolina, 5. 317 ; 
Lee thinks to emulate, 11. 845 
and Arnold, 258. 

Monmouth, N. J., battle, il. 73- 
80. 

Monro, Col., defends Fort William 
Henrv, 9. 312. j surrenders, 313. 

Monroe, James, opposes the Consti- 
tution, 12. 403. 

Montagnais, Adirondacks, g. 63. 

Montbars the Exterminator, bucca- 
neer, 5. 407.^ 

Montcalm, Louis Joseph, Marquis 
de, French commander-in-chief 
in America, g. 303 ; character, 
303 ; voyage to America, 304 ; 
and Vaudreuil, 305 ; captures Os- 
wego, 308; expedition against Fort 
William Henry, 310-313 ; un- 
able to prevent a massacre, 3 1 3- 
3155 defends Ticonderoga, 321— 
325 ; defence of Quebec, 350 ; 
battle of Plains of Abraham, 356 ; 
mortally wounded, 358. 

Montesino, Antonio, Dominican 
monk, crusade against Indian 
slavery, 3. 270-272 ; in Virginia, 
321 ; death, 321. 

Montezuma IL, Aztec chief-of- 
men, mistaken for a king by 
Spanish, i. iii, 1275 elected, 
3. 18 5 and the Great Khan, 365 
seized by Cortes, 71, 74-76 ; 
priest - commander, 72—74 ; de- 
posed, 82 j killed, 83. 



Montgomery, John, governor of 
New York, 8. 289. 

Montgomery, Richard, American 
brigadier-general, 10. 178 5 com- 
mands invasion of Canada, 194; 
killed at (Quebec, 197. 

Montreal, named, g. 20 ; founded, 
825 captured by British, 359; 
captured by Americans, 10. 194 ; 
recaptured, 198. See also Hoche- 
laga. 

Monts, Pierre du Guast, Sieur de, 
monopoly of fur-trade, g. 36, 57, 
59 5 grant, 49 ; voyage to Aca- 
dia, 50 5 gives up Canadian affairs, 
81. ;6Vf flAo Acadia, Port Royal. 

Moore, James, governor of South 
Carolina, 5. 340. 

Moore, James, defeats the Tuscaro- 
ras, 5. 355 ; provisional governor 
of South Carolina, 359. 

Moore's Creek, N. C, battle, 10. 
208. 

Moors, character, i. 312; signifi- 
cance of kingdom in Spain, 6. 12. 
See also Moriscoes. 

Moquis, Pueblo Indian group, I. 96; 
pueblos, 105. 

Morales, Gaspar de, in Gulf of San 
Miguel, 3. 200. 

Moravians, migration to Pennsylva- 
nia, 8. 408. 

Morgan, Daniel, commands Ameri- 
can sharpshooters, lo. 173 ; char- 
acter, 1 74 ; captured at Quebec, 
197 5 exchanged, 254 ; at Free- 
man's Farm, 3875 slighted, ll. 
299 ; joins southern army, 299 5 
commands detachment, 302 5 at 
Cowpens, 304-306 j joins 
Greene, 306 ; retires, 308. 

Morgan, Sir Henry, buccaneer, 5. 
409 ; exploits, 410—415 ; meta- 
morphosis, 416. 

Morgan, Lewis, criteria of culture, I. 
29—405 adopted by Senecas,S6 n. j 
on status of Pueblo Indians, 97 ; 
views on Mexican society, 1 16, 
132 n. ; rules on narratives of 



495 



GENERAL INDEX 



Spanish explorers, 143, 144; in- 
consistencies, 145-150. 

Moriscoes, converted Moors in Spain, 
condition, 3. 391 j rebellion, 396; 
expulsion, 397. 

Morison, Francis, royal commission- 
er, 5. 107. 

Morris, Gouverneur, ancestry, 8. 
234; member of the Federal Gon- 
vention, 12. 270. 

Morris, Robert, financial services to 
the nation, 10. 286, 12. 198 5 
on securing a revenue for Con- 
gress, 128 5 member of the Fed- 
eral Convention, 270. 

Morton, Joseph, governor of Caro- 
lina, and the pirates, 5. 423. 

Morton, Thomas, Ne-zu English 
Canaan, 6. iio ; character, iio, 
III; settles Merrymount, ill; 
sent back to England, iii, 126. 

Moscoso, Luis de, Soto's lieutanant, 

3- 340- 

Moultrie, William, repulses British at- 
tack on Charleston, 10. 233 ; 
defeats British at Port Royal, 11. 
204 ; on South Carolina's neutral- 
ity, 209. 

Mound-Builders, vague speculations, 
I. 161— 163 ; antiquity of mounds, 
163 ; compared with Mexicans 
and Zunis, 1 64 ; culture status, 
165 ; mounds by different tribes, 
166-168; and Indians, 168. 

Mount Desert Island, La Saussaye 
and Argall at, 4. 201, g. 76-78 ; 
discovered, 52. 

Mount Vernon, life at, 5. 273. 

Mowatt, Henry, British naval offi- 
cer, burns Portland, 10. 192. 

Mugwump, origin and use of term, 
6. 258. 

Mundus No-vus, Vespucius's letter 
published under title of, 2. 339- 
341 ; success, 342 ; Ringmann's 
edition, 343. See a/so New 
World. 

Munsee Indians, I. 51. 

Miinster, Sebastian, use of term 



America, 2. 381, 389 n., 3. 

3^7- 

Murray, Mrs. Lindley, saves Put- 
nam's troops, 10. 251. 

Muscovy Company, organized, 2. 
221, 4. 16, 7. 63, 93. 

Musgrove's Mills, S. C, battle, 11. 

235- 
Music, ancient Nahuatl, 3. 295, 

296 n. ; in colonial Virginia, 5. 

281 ; in the Netherlands, 7. 18. 
Muyscas. See Chibchas. 

Nahuas, Pueblo Indian group in 
Mexico, I. 96 ; invasion of Mex- 
ican tableland, 3. 5, 8 ; music, 
295, 296 n. See also Aztecs, 
Mexicans. 

Nakuk Pech, Maya chief, chronicle 
of Spanish conquest, i. 158. 

Names, queer transformations, I. 
270, 2. 329 n. ; character of 
Virginia and New England geo- 
graphical, 5. 8-11,45 5 Cavalier, 
in Virginia, 29 ; Huguenot, in 
America, 5. 238, 8. 401 ; for- 
mer partiality for classical, 12. 
233 ; of territories in Jefferson's 
plan, 234. 

Nantasket, Mass., settled, 6. iii. 

Nantucket, Mass., Duke of York's 
claim, 8. 7. 

Narragansett Bay, R. I., Verrazano 
in, 7. 75- . 

Narragansett Indians, and Pilgrims, 
6. 104 ; location, 147 ; refuse fo 
join Pequots, 158, 159; war 
with Mohegans, 205-209 ; un- 
friendly, 263 ; in King Philip's 
War, 280-285, 295, 296. 

Narvaez, Panfilo de, and Cortes, 3. 
78 ; expedition in southern United 
States, 330 ; death, 331. 

Nashville, Tenn., founded, 11. 130. 

Natchez, Miss., captured by Ameri- 
cans, II. 129. 

Natchez Indians, I. 50 n. 

Nation-making, of the Iroquois, I. 
56 j evolution, 5. 6-10, 13, 57 j 



496 



GENERAL INDEX 



and political history, 9 5 philoso- N 
phy, 10 } Oriental method, 11- 
135 Roman method, 14-20; 
English method, 24 5 continuity 
of ideas in Germanic invasion, 
3 1 ; conflict of Roman and Eng- 
lish ideas, 39, 55—57 ; influence 
of Puritans, 169. 

Nations, rise of modern, 6. 40-42. 

Naumkeag, Mass., settlement, 6. 
112, 116; named Salem, 116. 

Navigation, introduction of compass 
and astrolabe, I. 360-362 ; vague 
calculations of latitude and longi- 
tude, 362. See also Voyages. 

Navigation Acts, origin and provi- 
sions, 5. 53, 7. 289 j conse- 
quences, 5. 53, 126; Bland's re- 
monstrance, 54-59 ; effect on 
tobacco, 59, 129, 202, 254; 
infractions in Carolina, 327 ; effect 
on piracy, 423 ; early infractions 
in Massachusetts, 6. 318, 319; 
and trade with New Netherland, 

7. 324, 3265 writs of assistance, 
10. 14: commissioners of the 
customs in Townshend Acts, 36 ; 
Gaspee affair, 90 5 and United 
States trade, 12. 165. 

Navy, American, construction, ii. 
143-146; register of ships, 145; 
service rendered, 146-148 ; con- 
trol under Articles of Confedera- 
tion, 12. 115. See also Jones. 

Navy, British, development, 4. 26 ; 
impressment, 10. 59, 206 ; mili- 
tary dependence upon, 11. 142, 
3^9> 335 5 captures made by, 
146 ; supremacy, 168, 246,347 ; 
exercise of right of search, 169, 
172, 1 78-18 1, 189. See also 
Howe (Richard), sea kings, Rod- 
ney. 

Navy, French, attempted invasion of 
England, II. 166; overthrow, 
347. See also Estaing, Grasse, 
Guichen, Ternay. 

Nayler, James, religious enthusiast, 

8. 1-9. 

497 



estorian missionaries in Asia, i. 
309 ; heretics, 310. 
etherlands, persecution and revolt, 
3- 393> 7- 4^-5° ) conquests in 
East Indies, 3. 394, 7. 57-60; 
alliance with Elizabeth, 4. 25 ; 
commercial connection with Eng- 
land, 53, 7. 39-43, 51-53 ; re- 
ligious liberty, 4. 313, 6. 88 ; 
and the Navigation Act, 5. 55,7. 
289 ; sea power, 5. 401, 7. 56 ; 
efforts to suppress piracy, 5. 421; 
Pilgrims in, 6. 86 ; public schools, 
134, 7. 21; and the Roman 
Empire, 5 ; and the Prankish 
Empire, 7—10 ; in Lotharingia, 
10-12 ; growth of little states, 

1 3 ; resulting political advantages, 

14 ; geographical advantages, 14, 
46 ; agricultural and industrial 
growth, 15-18 ; topography, 16; 
fine arts, 18, 24; culture, 19- 

21 ; urban and rural population, 

22 ; burgher type, 23 ; discord- 
ant political factors, 25-27 ; con- 
ditions of civil liberty, 28, 262 ; 
absorption by the House of Bur- 
gundy, 28 ; under Charles the 
Bold, 29 ; Great Privilege, 30 ; 
under the Hapsbnrgs, 31-33 ; in- 
fluence on American progress, 36, 
8. 414 ; importance of the wool- 
len industry, 7. 40 ; religious in- 
fluence on England, 43-46; 
Protestantism, 47 ; division, 50 ; 
further history of the Flemish, 
50, 54 ; growth of the Dutch 
at expense of the Flemish, 54 ; 
Australasian explorations, 60 ; con- 
trol of Brazil, 62 ; Arctic ex- 
plorations, 64 ; Antarctic explora- 
tions, 65 ; independence acknow- 
ledged ,112; parties in 1609, 114— 
116; divergent views on coloniza- 
tion, 116— 118; triumph of the 
war party, 1 24 ; inauguration of a 
colonial policy, 127 ; charter of 
the Dutch West India Company, 
129 ; alliance with Charles I., 



GENERAL INDEX 



237; renewed war with Spain, 
145 5 English friendship, 282 ; 
effect ot treaty of Munster, 283 ; 
government, 283-285 ; parties 
after treaty of JVliinster, 285- 
287 ; attempted union with the 
Commonwealth, 287 5 commer- 
cial rivalry with England, 288 5 
wars with Englai d, 289-291, 
301-310, 329-338, 8. 19, 27- 

^9, 39741, II- 1^9-1945 per- 
sonal union with England, 7. 291 5 
immigration of Jews, 8. 388 j 
inducement to Huguenots, 399 ; 
harbour Paul Jones, 1 1. 159, 
188 ; on rights of neutrals, 171 ; 
ships searched by British, 179- 
181, 189 5 opinions on the Revo- 
lution, 186; mutual disregard of 
treaties with England, 187 ; joins 
Armed Neutrality, 189; peace 
with England, 12. 44; trade 
treaty with United States, 184. 
See also New Netherland. 

Neutral Nation Indians, i. 53. 

Neutrality, early disregard of rights of 
neutrals, 5. 402, 11. 170 5 Con- 
solato del xVIare, 1 71-173 j origin 
of doctrine of free ships, free 
goods, 173 5 adoption of the doc- 
trine, 178, 182, 184; British 
depredations on neutral commerce, 
179-181, 189; Armed Neutral- 
ity, 182; England's opposition, 
183. 

New Albion, Drake names, 3. 377, 

4- r- 

New Amstel, Dutch settlement on 
the Delaware, 5. 1625 resists the 
English, 8. 4 5 called Newcastle, 4. 

New Amsterdam, beginnings, 7. 
140; conditions, 158, 189- 191, 
196, 267, 303 J subscription for 
a church, 212 j municipal gov- 
ernment desired, 252 ; incorpo- 
rated, 265 5 defences, 301 j cap- 
tured, 333-338 J named New 
York, 8. I. See also Manhattan 



Island, New Netherland, New 
York City. 

New Bedford, Mass., burnt by Brit- 
ish, II. 132. 

New Berne, N. C, founded, 5. 
347 ; Indian massacre, 353. 

New England, exploration of coast, 

4. 65,6. 91, 7. 76, 102, 131, 
g. 52—55 5 a Virginian's opinion, 

5. 4 5 character of its geographical 
names, 10 j character of settlers, 
132, 213, 217, 6. 170-174; 
reasons for social difference from 
Virginia, 5. 34, 294; origin 
and character of its local govern- 
ment, 35-40, 48, 49 > 7; 257; 
small farms, 5. 365 militia, 47 ; 
architecture, 260 ; school system, 
292-296, 7. 375 illegal trade 
with North Carolina, 328, 330; 
settled through religious ditferences, 

6. 94, 145, 1865 parcelled out 
by Charles I., 137 ; Gorges gov- 
ernor, 137; effect of Pequot 
War, 163 5 population in 1640, 
1665 importance of migration, 
1 74 5 settlement not intended to 
promote religious libertv, 175— 
178 5 laws against (Quakers, 236; 
regicides, 245-247,275,2760.5 
abundant sources, 304 ; romantic 
history, 304 j under Andros, 334— 
341, 8. 205 j effect of Revolution 
of 1689,6. 341-347 5 and Norum- 
bega, 7. 81 ; named, 131 5 extent 
under charter of Council of New 
England, 1335 growth threatens 
New Netherland, 171, 199-201, 
319; dispute with the Dutch over 
Connecticut, 173 -181, 291— 
301 ; trade with New Nether- 
land, 187 ; and New Nether- 
land during the first English-Dutch 
war, 303-310 5 preparation against 
reconquered New Netherland, 8. 
31 ; resumption of old govern- 
ments, 209 ; conquers Acadia, 9 
965 purpose of settlement, 104 j 



498 



GENERAL INDEX 



gloomy outlook in 1692, 156; 
Indian depredations, 241 ; captures 
Louisburg, 250-256 5 ports closed, 
10. 132.5 forbidden to fish on 
the Banks, 132; factor in Bur- 
goyne's campaign, 3125 religious 
intolerance before 1800, 12. 88— 
91 5 commercial control under the 
Constitution feared, 312, 399, 
401. -See also next title. Colo- 
nies, King Philip's War, Puri- 
tans, and colonies by name. 

New England Confederacy, liberal- 
izing effect, 6. 187 ; causes, 187 ; 
population in 1643, 188, 1925 
formed, 188 j constitution, 191 ; 
value, 192 ; act of sovereignty, 
193 5 distrusted in England, 193, 
244, 248 ; acts against Gorton, 
210 5 against Quakers, 234, 237 j 
weakened, 251 5 Narragansetts in- 
timidated, 263 ; measures in King 
Philip's War, 278-281, 290, 300. 
See also New England. 

New France. See Canada. 

New Hampshire, founded, 6. 145 ; 
joined to Massachusetts, 146, 
187; dissent permitted, 187; 
royal province, 3245 share in 
Louisburg expedition, g. 251 5 
troops for campaign of 1759, 343 5 
quarrel with governor over repre- 
sentation, 10. 3 ; instructs for 
independence, 218 5 forms new 
government, 218 5 gradual eman- 
cipation, 12. 87 ; uprising against 
the courts, 217 5 ratifying conven- 
tion adjourns, 397 ; ratifies the 
Constitution, 405. See also New 
England, Vermont. 

New Hampshire Grants. See Ver- 
mont. 

New Haven colony, founded, 6. 1 64, 
165, 7. 200 ; theocracy, 6. 165 ; 
administration of justice, 166, 
313; population in 1643, 1925 
regicides, 245-247 ; annexed to 
Connecticut, 249, 8. 6, g. 21 1 n. ; 
settlement in New Jersey, 6. 250, 



8. 16 ; political discontent, 6. 
314; contact with New Nether- 
land, 7. 201 5 attempted settle- 
ments in New jersey and Pennsyl- 
vania, 278 ; controversy with New 
Netherland, 292-296 5 contrasted 
with Connecticut, 8. 15. See at so 
Connecticut, New England. 
New Haven, Conn., Tryon attacks, 

II- 133- 
New Jersey, grant to Berkeley and 
Carteret, 5. 167, 8. 12; an- 
nexed to New England, 6. 335, 
8. 205 5 Nicolls's grant, 12 ; 
Elizabethtown founded, i 3 5 con- 
flicting grants, 145 named, 14; 
government under the Conces- 
sions, 14, 17 ; New Haven set- 
tlers, 1 5-1 7 ; early government 
troubles, 18 ; Berkeley's interest 
sold to Quakers, 1 9 ; regrant of 
East Jersey to Carteret, 42, 108 ; 
Quaker claim to West Jersey ig- 
nored, 42, 108 5 boundary line 
of East and West Jersey, 42, 
163 5 troubles arising from York's 
claim of government, 108-113, 
163-165, 168 ; York cedes the 
government, 113, 114, 170; 
Penn's award in West Jersey, 
162; settlements in West Jersey, 
163, 1645 Burlington founded, 
166 ; Penn's draft of government 
for W^est Jersey, 167; united as 
a royal province, 279 ; executive 
union with New York, 279 5 sal- 
ary controversy with Cornbury, 
279 ; troops for campaign of 
1759, g. 343; dispute over inde- 
pendence and new government, 
10. 218 ; retreat of Am.erican 
army across, 262 ; British driven 
from, 268-276 ; Howe's attempt 
to cross foiled, 358 ; permits 
emancipation, 12. 87 ; paper 
money, 203 ; ratifies the Consti- 
tution, 377. See also Colonies, 
Delaware River, and battles by 
name. 



499 



GENERAL INDEX 



New Laws on Indian slavery, 3. 
301. 

New London, Conn., burnt by Ar- 
nold, II. 339. 

New Netherland, Virginians at Fort 
Nassau, 4. 298, 7. 187; bound- 
aries, 5. 166, 7. 122 5 in Con- 
necticut valley, 6. 149, 7. 135, 
173-181, 291-301 5 growth pro- 
motes New England Confeder- 
acy, 6. 187 ; fall, 249, 7. 332- 
338 ; pioneer traders at Man- 
hattan, 1 18 5 Ordinance of 16 14, 
1195 explorations, 1205 control 
of the United New Netherland 
Company, 121-1245 treaty with 
the Iroquois, 123 ; control of the 
Dutch West India Company, 129 ; 
English claims, 1 31-134, 137, 
144, 163-166, 170, 320-324, 
326 } government, 134, 1 52, 
259, 262 ; first settlers, 1 34- 
137; Minuit director - general, 
139 ; threatened breach with the 
Iroquois, 141-143 ; intercourse 
with Plymouth, 143 ; growth, 
154, 188, 266-268, 318 ; estab- 
lishment of manors, 154-159; 
early manors, 159-162; disputes 
with the patroons, 162, 240-249 5 
Twiller director-general, 166 ; at- 
tempt to forestall English settle- 
ments, 170-173 ; trade with New 
England, 187; removal of Twil- 
ler, 191 ; Kieft director-general, 
192; his autocratic methods and 
reforms, 193-196; character of 
the population in Kieft's time, 
196 ; monopoly abolished, 197 ; 
encouragement of settlers, 198 ; 
English settlers, 199, 211 ; con- 
tact with New Haven, 201 ; con- 
trol of Long Island, 201, 204, 
291, 310, 313, 326, 328 ; wars 
with the Delaware Indians 205- 
218, 226, 314-318 ; Kieft and 
the popular demands, 209-211, 
219; financial needs, 220, 302; 
excise, 221, 222, 233, 302 ; pro- 



test against Kieft, 223-225 ; Stuy- 
vesant director-general, 225 ; his 
autocracy, 230, 233-237, 296; 
step toward representation, 238 ; 
difficulties in the government, 
240 ; Stuyvesant and the popular 
demands, 250-253, 264, 296, 
302, 310-313, 3-8; memorial 
to the States General, 252, 263; 
phases of development, 266 ; cos- 
mopolitanism, 267; religious per- 
secution, 267-275 ; English set- 
tlements in New Jersey broken 
up, 278 ; relations with New 
Sweden, 278, 281; during the 
first English-Dutch war, 301- 
310 ; internal weakness, 319; 
validity of Dutch claim, 322 j 
essential to English control in 
America, 324, 338, 8. i ; por- 
tents of disaster, 7. 325 ; granted 
to the Duke of York, 329 ; 
secret expedition against, 3 30 ; 
peaceful submission to the English, 
8. 4. See also Hudson River, 
New Amsterdam, New York. 

New Paltz, N. Y., Walloons settle, 
8. 397. 

New Providence, Bahama Islands, 
harbours pirates, 5. 422 ; re- 
deemed, 426. 

New Rochelle, N. Y., Huguenot 
settlement, 8. 403. 

New Sweden, origin, 7. 275-277 j 
warned by English and Dutch, 
277 ; progress, 278-280 ; over- 
throw, 281. 

New Town (Cambridge), Mass., 
settled, 6. 127; college founded, 
I 34 ; name changed, i 34 ; dis- 
content with theocratic and aristo- 
cratic tendencies, 150, 151 ; mi- 
gration to Connecticut, 153. 

New World, first use of term, 2. 
336-338 ; original application of 
term, 344-357; called America, 
366-368. See also America. 

New York, granted to the Duke of 
York, 7. 330 ; captured from the 



500 



GENERAL INDEX 



Dutch, 332-338 ; importance to 
English control in America, 8. 
I ; Nicolls governor, 2 ; Duke's 
Laws, 3 5 autocratic government, 
3, 25 5 settlement of the Connec- 
ticut boundary, 5—7 5 claims in 
New England, 7 5 ceded by the 
Dutch, 19 ; departure of Nicolls, 
19 5 Lovelace governor, 20, 28 5 
demand for representative govern- 
ment, 26, 49—51, 197 5 captured 
by the Dutch, 28 ; Dutch gov- 
ernment, 2,8-39 5 restored to Eng- 
land, 41 ; York's second grant, 
41; Andros governor, 43; re- 
establishment of English rule, 45 ; 
allegiance of Long Island towns, 
46 5 oath of allegiance to England, 
46-48 ; economic and moral con- 
ditions under Andros, 52 ; revival 
of claim to Connecticut, 53-58 ; 
importance of Iroquois friendship, 
61 5 conditions around Manhattan 
in 1680, 73-85, 88-ico ; cus- 
tom-house inspections, 86—88 5 
religious conditions in 1680, ico- 
106 5 estate and revenue in 1680, 
104, 106 5 question of control 
over New Jersey, 1 08-1 14, 163- 
165, 168-171; dissatisfaction 
with Andros, 195 5 troubles over 
customs duties, 195, 1965 Dongan 
governor, 198 ; first assembly, 

198 5 becomes a royal province, 

199 ; French designs against, 202 ; 
annexed to New England, 205, 
206 5 fear of French invasion and 
Catholic plot, 210-212, 417, 
421 5 conditions favouring Leisler's 
revolt, 214-216; rising againsf 
Nicholson, 217, 418 ; Leisler's 
declaration, 2185 Leisler assumes 
control, 219-222, 419 ; condi- 
tions of Leisler's control, 222— 
224, 227, 228, 231; French raid 
on Schenectady, 224-227 ; Leis- 
ler's assembly, 228; William IIL's 
provisions for government, 230 ; 
Leisler's defiance of Ingoldsby, 



234-236; Leisler and Sloughter, 
236, 424; overthrow of Leisler, 
236, 237; his trial and execution, 
237-240, 425-431 ; strategic 
position, 243-245, 10. 235, 305; 
bears brunt of Canadian wars, 245; 
first assembly under William and 
Mary, 246; anti-Catholic legisla- 
tion, 247, 337; desire to annex 
Connecticut and Pennsylvania, 
247 ; Fletcher governor, 247 ; 
party strife, 250, 266, 268, 275- 
277; governor and assembly, 251, 
278, 284, 285, 305 ; Fletcher 
recalled, 265 ; Bellomont gover- 
nor, 266 ; Cornbury governor, 

277 ; appointment of a treasurer, 

278 ; Ingoldsby acting governor, 
280 ; Hunter governor, 282 ; 
paper money, 283, 12. 203 ; Bur- 
net's fur-trade reforms, 8. 286- 
289 ; Zenger's trial, 290—300 ; 
extent in colonial times, 303 ; 
causes of slow growth, 304; colo- 
nial economic conditions, 304 ; 
debt and taxation, 305; conditions 
of government, 305 ; politics, 
305—308; social conditions, 508— 
310; manors, 310-317 ; Albany 
in 1765, 317-320; type of the 
Dutch country house, 320—326 ; 
colonial dress, 327-329 ; indented 
servants, 333; slaveiy, 334; negro 
plot of 1712, 336 ; and of 1741, 
336-342 ; centre of distribution 
for non-English population, 385 ; 
immigration and treatment of the 
Jews, 389-391 ; immigration of 
Huguenots, 396, 402—405; troops 
for campaign of 1759, 343 ; 
tenure and salary of chief justice, 
10. 15 ; assembly suspended by 
Parliament, 37; influences adverse 
to the Revolution, 135, 150; 
strife over New Hampshire Grants, 
136, 12. 181; refuses to join non- 
importation agreement, 10. 137 ; 
British ministry favours, 137; joins 
common cause, 137 ; exposed 



501 



GENERAL INDEX 



position influences discussion of 
independence, 222, 224 5 adopts 
independence, 229 5 Carleton's 
invasion, 292—295 ; British plans 
for 1777, 307 5 military situation, 
177S-1781, II. 88, 98, 198 J 
suffering from loyalist attacks, 
104, 109, 113, 12. 145; anti- 
loyalist legislation, 146, 150-1525 
trade restrictions, 172-175} claim 
to western territory, 225 ; cedes 
it, 228 5 defeats impost amend- 
ment to Articles of Confederation, 
260 ; importance to the Union, 
407 ; contest over ratification of 
the Constitution, 408-412 5 pro- 
poses another convention, 413 ; 
fails to choose presidential electors, 
415. See also Burgovne, Colo- 
nies, Howe (William), Iroquois, 
New Netherland, New York City, 
St. Leger, Washington, and battles 
and fortified places by name. 

New York City, population in 1776, 
5. 246 5 cosmopolitanism, 7. i, 
8. 330, 415 5 change in the gov- 
ernment, 3 ; abolition of class di- 
visions, 20; post with Boston, 21 — 
25 5 Merchants' Exchange estab- 
lished, 25 5 Dutch capture, 28 5 
Dutch defensive measures, 32-36 5 
Andros's reforms, 51 5 in 1680, 
73-85 5 WoUey on its climate, 
10 1 ; flour monopoly, 107 j and 
the pirates, 259-263, 267 5 in 
1735, 301-303; colonial cheer- 
fulness and refinement, 329 ; 
amusements, 3305 clubs and inns, 
331 ; literature and schools, 331 — 
33-3'; reception of Stamp Act, 10. 
21 ; riots, 28 5 breaks non-impor- 
taii^n agreement, 88 ; action on 
tea, 99 5 conditions in 1775, 136 ; 
Biitish capture, 250-252 5 British 
evjcuate, I2. 61. See also New 
Arusterdam, New York. 

r^e*v York Harbour, Verrazano in, 
•J. 74; Hudson in, 103. 

New iiealand discovered, 7. 60. 



Newark, N. J., settled and namedi 
6. 250, 8. 16. 

Newburgh address, 12. 129-132. 

Newcastle, Del. See New Am- 
stel. 

Newfoundland, and Markland, i. 
189; and Estotiland, 285; early 
cartography, 2. 229, 236, 238 n. 
348, 451 ; early exploitation of 
the fisheries, 236-238, 4. 15, 7. 
67, 9. 4, 7, 33 ; called Baccalacs, 
2. 237; Baltimore's palatinate, 
4. 300, 305-308, 312; question 
ofpre-Cabotian voyages, 9.3; fish- 
eries prohibited to New England, 
10. 132; fisheries cut off, 11. 
30, 146 ; France and Spain plan 
to monopolize ihe fisheries, 1 65 ; 
importance of the fisheries to 
America, 12. 24, 27 ; fisheries 
in the peace of 1783, 30, 43. 

Newgate, Conn., prison and the pri- 
son ships, II. 137. 

Newport, Christopher, captures Span- 
ish carrack, 4. 63 ; commands 
first expedition to Virginia, 84, 
107; explores the James, 110; 
return to England, 112, 191 ; 
brings supplies, 132, 174, 181 ; 
attempts to cross the Blue Ridge, 
137; jests on his name, 140 ; 
wrecked at Bermudas, 1 74. 

Newport, R. I., stone mill, i. 248, 
6. 203 n.; founded, 146, 201 ; 
incorporated in Rhode Island, 1 90; 
Jews in, 8. 389 ; British occupy, 

10. 267, II. 89; French and 
Americans attack, 91-96 ; British 
evacuate, 98 ; French army at, 
245, 246. 

Newport News, Va., origin of name, 

4. 108 n. 
Newspapers, first, in Virginia, 5. 

286 ; early colonial, 8. 289 n. ; 

first, in Pennsylvania, 376. See 

also Zenger. 
Newtown (Elmira), N. Y., battle, 

11. III. 

Niagara Falls, Champlain hears ofj 



502 



gp:neral index 



g. 59; La Salle hears, I13; 
Hennepin sketches, 126. 
Niagara River. &tf Fort Niagara. 
NichoUet, Charles, fined for preach- 
ing sedition, 5. 177. 
Nichols, Richard. !See Nicolls. 
Nicholson, Sir Francis, deputy-gov- 
ernor and lieutenant-governor of 
Virginia, 5. 134, 140 ; char- 
acter, 135, 142-144; favours 
William and Mary College, 137 ; 
governor of Maryland, 137; re- 
called, 144 5 plan of union, 151 ; 
removes the capital of Maryland, 
188; founds King William 
School, 189 ; royal governor of 
South Carolina, 359 ; lieutenant- 
governor of New York, 8. 206 ; 
predicament due to the overthrow 
of Andros, 209; accused of Ca- 
tholicism, 212, 214, 215, 417; 
defensive measures misinterpreted, 
216; overthrow, 217; goes to 
England, 218 ; leads fruitless at- 
tack on Canada, 281 ; conquers 
Nova Scotia, 282. 
Nicola, Louis, scheme to make 

Washington king, 12. 127. 
Nicollet, Jean, western explorations, 

3- 363, 9- 9^-100. 
Nicolls, Richard, royal commissioner, 
dual nature of his commission, 7. 
330; captures New Amsterdam, 
332-338 ; governor of New 
York, character, 8. 2 ; autocra- 
cy, 3, II ; grant in New Jersey, 
12; resigns, 19; death, 20; and 
the oath of allegiance, 46 ; and 
the Iroquois, 60. 
Nicolls, William, and Leisler, 8. 

231, 237. 
Nicuesa, Diego de, governor of Span- 
ish province on mainland, 3. 179; 
suffering of his colony, 184; 
treatment at Darien, 185 ; lost at 
sea, 185. 
Nieuwenhuysen, Wilhelmus van, 
minister in New York, 8. 100 ; 
feud, 102. 



Nikulas Sasmundsson, abbot in Ice* 
land, mentions Vinland, i. 235. 

Nine Men, Board of, in New Neth' 
erland, 7. 238-240, 249-253, 
264, 296. 

Ninety-Six, S. C, strategic impor- 
tance, II. 220; siege and evacu- 
ation, 318. 

Nipmuck Indians, location, 6. 147 ; 
in King Philip's War, 269, 273- 
278, 290-295. 

Non-importation agreement, first, 10. 
56 ; affects London, 71 ; Vir- 
ginia supports, 76 ; New York 
merchants break, 88 ; association 
formed in First Congress, 130. 

Nordenskjold, Baron, authority on 
Zeno narrative, I. 262. 

Norfolk, Va., growth, 5. 245 j 
burnt by Dunmore, 10. 211 5 
sacked by British, 11. 132. 

Normandy, France, race character- 
istics, g. I ; mariners, 2 ; early in- 
terest in Newfoundland fisheries, 
3 ; objects to trade monopoly in 
Canada, 37, 57. &f ^Ao Dieppe. 

Norombega. See Norumbega. 

Norridgewock, Maine, village of 
christianized Algonquin Indians, 
importance of location, g. 235 ; 
Rale in, 235-237 ; inhabitants 
take the war path, 241 ; stormed, 
243 ; tribe exterminated, 244. 

North, Lord, chancellor of the ex- 
chequer, 10. 53 ; character, 53 j 
compromise on Townshend Acts, 
71 ; favours coercion, 72, II2 ; 
prime minister, 87 ; his five acts 
of colonial regulation, 112-115; 
policy of peace or war, 133; 
measures of conciliation, 11. 5, 8, 
27 ; his defence of them, 9 ; im- 
plores the king to form new min- 
istry, 1 5 ; remains prime minister, 
26 ; effect of Yorktown, 344 ; 
overthrow of ministry, 347, 12. 
I ; coalition with Fox, 44-50 ; 
coalition ministry, 52, 55. 

North America, and Drogio, i. 286,' 



S^^Z 



GENERAL INDEX 



identified with Asia, 2. 129, 134, 
ai8, 222, 348, 353, 451, 3. 
203, 327, 357 n., 9. 22 ; carto- 
graphical separation from Asia, 2. 
350, 380, 385, 414, 3. 320, 
356, 357,_ 38s 5 application of 
name America to, 2. 305 5 Span- 
ish explorations of interior, 3. 331- 
341 ; French explorations of in- 
terior, 361-374, 9. 111-120, 
126-132 5 crossed, 3. 376 5 final 
recognition as a separate continent, 
385 J early cartography of east- 
ern coast, 7. 84-87. See also 
America. 
North Carolina, Raleigh's attempted 
settlement, 4. 35-39, 41, 44- 
46 ; Bacon's plans concerning, 5. 
995 settlement, 322-3245 early 
governors, 323, 326 5 legislation 
to attract immigrants, 326; unlaw- 
ful trade with New England, 327- 
329 5 Miller acting governor, 3295 
Culpeper usurpation, 330-333 ; 
Sothel s administration, 333-3355 
Ludwell governor, 339 5 Arch- 
dale governor, 340 5 trouble over 
established church and test oath, 
343-345, 356; rival governments 
of Carey and Glover, 345 5 Hyde 
governor, 345 ; Carey's insurrec- 
tion, 346 ; growth, 347 ; In- 
dians in, 348-351 5 Tuscarora 
War, 351-355; Eden governor, 
356 ; paper money, 356, 12. 
201 5 becomes a royal province, 
5- 359 5 social conditions, 361 — 
373 5 geographical conditions, 
361-363; industries, 366; ab- 
sence of towns, 367 ; German 
and Scotch-Irish settlers, 371- 
373 5 provincial character, 388 ; 
and the pirates, 425, 427, 428 5 
Regulators' War, 10. 89 ; Meck- 
lenburg County Resolves, 150- 
152; defeat of the loyalists, 207- 
209 ; instructs for independence 
and local self-government, 209 ; 
conditions in 1779, II. 199; 



Cornwallis's invrGion, 293, 298 | 
partisan warfare, 293 ; western 
claim, 12. 21 5 sentiment on sla- 
very in 1776, 86 ; duty on im- 
ported slaves, 87 ; cedes western 
claim, 236 ; cession revoked, 2385 
and the state of Franklin, 238 ; 
tardy ratification of the Constitu- 
tion, 413. See also Carolina, 
Greene (Nathanael), and battles 
by name. 
Northampton, Mass., Indian attack, 
6. 294 ; development of Halfway 
Covenant in church at, 9. 222 ; 
beginning of Great Awakening, 
226 ; church quarrel with Ed- 
wards, 231. 
Northern Neck, Va., negro plot, 5. 

228. 
Northmen, conversion, I. 187. See 
aho Greenland, Iceland, Vinland. 
Northwest, route used by the French, 
9. 104 ; Indian conditions in 
1670, 105-107 5 France takes 
possession, 107-109. See aho 
Frontier, Territory. 
Northwest Passage, why sought, 2. 
222, 4. 72, 7. 63, 9. 9 ; search 
for, 3. 320, 363, 378, 380, 
381, 7. 71, 9. 10, 14. 
Northwest Territory, Clark's con- 
quest, 11. 126-129; annexed to 
Virginia, 128 ; importance of con- 
quest, 130. See also Terricory. 
Norton, John, Boston minister, 

character, 6. 227, 229. 
Norumbega, Horsford's views, i. 
255, 7. 81 ; and Norway, 2. 
72 n. ; location, 4. 65, 7. 81- 
91, 9. 27, 28, 52. 
Norwalk, Conn., burnt by British, 

II- 133. 

Notley, Thomas, governor of Mary- 
land, 5. 181. 

Nottoway Indians, 5. 350. 

Nova Scotia conquered by Nicholson, 
8. 282. See also Acadia. 

Nova Zembla, discovered, 3. 379, 7^ 
64. 



504 



GENERAL INDEX 



Nurse, Rebecca, witchcraft victim, 
9. 165, 174. 

Ocampo, Sebastian de, circumnavi- 
gates Cuba, 2. 264. 

Occupation, and title to wild lands, 
7. 132, 164, 322; what consti- 
tutes, 165. 

Odoric, friar of Pordenone, in China 
and India, I. 332. 

Oglethorpe, James, settlement of 
Georgia, 5. 390-392 j character, 
390 n. 

Ohio Company, origin, 12. 240. 

Ohio River, La Salle's expedition, 3. 
363,9. III-I15. See also next 
title. 

Ohio valley, beginnings of English 
occupation, 5. 466, 9. 260, 264, 
II. 122-125 j effect on the 
French, 9. 261 ; Indians, 263 ; 
French possession asserted, 264— 
267 ; Duquesne sends expedition 
to control, 268-270 ; Washing- 
ton's mission, 270, 271 5 Fort 
Duquesne built, 272 ; failure of 
Washington's expedition, 273- 
276 ; effect of Fort Duquesne on 
English prestige, 277, 293; Eng- 
lish gain control, 340 ^ Lord 
Dunmore's W?r, 11. 1 17-122. 
Sec also Fort Duquesne, Frontier, 
Territory. 

Ojeda, Alonso de (fi''S-), in Colum- 
bus's second expedition, 2. 1525 
voyage to South America, 248, 
269, 3195 governor of Dirien, 3. 
179, 181 ; shipwreck and death, 
181. 

Ojeda, Alonso de (second), anH the 
destruction of Las Casas's colony, 
3. 286. 

Ojibway Indians, I. 51, 9- 99: 
French friendship, 105. 

Old Britain. See Demoiselle. 

Old Dominion, origin of term, 5. 

Old King (Sayenqueraghta), Seneca 



chief, at Wyoming massacre, IZ 
107 ; at Cherry Valley, iio n. 

Old South Church, Boston, founded, 
6. 315,9. 201 ; Episcopal service 
in, 6. 336. 

Oldham, John, in Massachusetts, 
6. 126 ; in Connecticut valley, 
1525 murdered, 157. 

Olid, Cristoval de, in Central Amer- 
ica, 3. 205 ; death, 205, 

Olonnois, buccaneer, 5. 408. 

Omaha Indians, i, 48. 

Onas, Indian name for governors of 
Pennsylvania, 8. 59 n., 186. 

One Hundred Associates, privileges 
and duties, 9. 90. 

Oneidas, Iroquois Indians, I. 54 ; 
meaning of name, 9. 45 5 segre- 
gated from the Mohawks, 47. 
See also Iroquois. 

Onondagas, Iroquois Indians, I. 54 j 
meaning of name, 9. .45. See 
also Iroquois, 

Onontio, Iroquois name for govern- 
ors of Canada, 8. 59 n. 

Opekankano, Powhatan's brother, 
and the Virginians, 4. 118, 119, 
164, 223, 357. 

Ordinance of 1 614, Dutch, 7. 119. 

Ordinance of 1784, draft, 12. 232- 

Ordinance of 1787, 12. 242-245. 

Oregon, American claims, 3. 375 ; 
Lewis and Clark's expedition, 376. 

Orellana, Francisco de, voyage on 
the Amazon, 3. 233. 

Orinoco River, Columbus at the 
delta, 2. 1845 described, 185 n. 

Oriskany, N. Y., battle, lO. 338- 
342. 

Orkney, Earl of, absentee governa 
of Virginia, 5. 140. 

Oswald, Richard, informal peace ne- 
gotiations, 12. 10 ; envoy, 26. 

Oswego. N. Y., importance of 
founding, P. 288, 9. 2625 cap- 
tured and dsst'-oyed by the Fren^-h. 
308 J effect ot capture, -jog j re 



505 



GENERAL INDEX 



built, 345 
346. 



successfully defended, 



Otis, James, on writs of assistance, 
10. 14 5 Vindication of colonial 
control of expenditures, 16 5 pro- 
poses Stamp Act Congress, 24 ; 
on colonial representation in Par- 
liament, 40 j on rescission of cir- 
cular letter, 58 5 assaulted, 76 ; 
at Bunker Hill, 168. 

Otoe Indians, i. 48. 

Ottawa Indians, I. 51, g. 64; war 
party with Champlain, 65-70 j 
Champlain among, 84 5 driven 
westward by the Iroquois, 106. 

Otumba, Mexico, Cortes's victory 
at, 3. 84. 

Ovando, Nicolas de, governor of 
Hispaniola, 2. 198; and Colum- 
bus, 201, 207, 208 ; character 
as governor, 3. 256 5 treatment 
of Indians, 257-259; and the 
encomiendas, 264 5 recalled, 269. 

Oviedo, Gonsalvo Hernandez de, 
on Pedrarias, 3. 191 ; inspector- 
general at Darien, 191. 

Oxenstjerna, Count Axel, interest in 
New Sweden, 7. 276. 

Oxford University, Virginians at, 5. 
290 ; conservative, 6. 73, 7. 44, 
10. 191 ; inculcates passive obedi- 
ence, 6. 331. 

Pachacamac, Peruvian god, 3. 145. 

Pachacutec, Inca, conquests, 3. 126; 
and the military colonies, 136; and 
the Chirihuanas, 158. 

Pacific Ocean, first European know- 
ledge of Asian shore, I. 321 ; 
Columbus unwittingly hears of, 2. 
205 5 hypothetical indication on 
Stobnicza's map, 414 ; Balboa's 
discovery, 415, 3. 188 ; first 
realization of its extent, 2. 416 n.; 
Magellan names and crosses, 438— 
442. 

Paine, Thomas, character, 10. 204; 
effect of Common Sense, 205, 206; 
TAe Crisis, hio apothegm, 267. 



Palatinates, origin and nature, 4. 
301-305, 323-327 ; Avalon, 
305; Maryland, 316, 329-334; 
American type, 328 ; Pennsylva- 
nia, 5. 168, 8. 176-178 ; Caro- 
lina, 5. 320-322. 

Palatine, title in Carolina govern- 
ment, 5- pi-. 

Palatines, migration to America, 5. 
347, 371, 8. 409; dialect, 5. 
372, 8. 409 ; union with Scotch- 
Irish, 414; influence on Ameri- 
can progress, 414. 

Pampas Indians, 3. 96. 

Pamunkey, ^ueen of, and Virginia, 
5. 83-86, 104. 

Panaetius on torrid zone, I. 355. 

Panama, Colombia, founded, 3. 201 ; 
pirates sack, 5. 41 3-415 ; Cham- 
plain suggests a canal at, g. 41. 

Panton, Anthony, and Harvey, 4. 

346, 349- 
Parishes, in Virginia, 5. 41-43, 

1 14-1 18; in South Carolina, 

378. 
Paike, Daniel, suffers at Bacon's 

hands, 5. 104. 
Parke, Daniel (younger), and Blair, 

5- 139- 

Parker, John, commands minute 
men at Lexington, 10. 144. 

Parker, Sir Peter, attack on Charles- 
ton, 10. 232-235. 

Parker, William, in Plymouth Com- 
pany, 4. 79. 

Parliament, English, and the London 
Company, 4. 212-214, 256 ; and 
James I., 231, 244, 257; con- 
trol over the colonies, 257, 5. 
168, 435-438, 6. 190, 194- 
196, 211, 233, 7. 177, 10. 18, 
38-41 ; Rump commissioners in 
Virginia and Maryland, 4. 367— 
370 ; causes of Stamp Act, 5. 
446, 8. 255, 257, g. 243, 273, 
281, 10. 13 ; fii-st House of 
Commons, 6. 36 ; Henry VIII. 's 
reliance, 66 ; conflict with Charles 
I., 1 1 8-1 22, 167; GrenviUe 



506 



GENERAL INDEX 



miiiistry, lO. 1 7 ; reimburses 
colonial war expenditures, 1 7 ; 
resolves to tax colonies, 1 8 ; colo- 
nies deny the right to tax, 19 j 
Stamp Act passed, 20 ; Rocking- 
ham ministry, 29, II. 348, 12. 
6 J debate on repeal of Stamp 
Act, 10. 29-31 J declaratory act, 
31 ; Grafton ministry, 32 ; 
Townshend Acts, 34—36 j sus- 
pends New York Assembly, 37 j 
conditions in 1767, 37; reform, 
50, II. 24, 12. 7, 49> 57 i 
changes in ministry adverse to 
colonies, 53 ; Henry VIII. 's 
statute on treason abroad extended 
to the colonies, 70 5 debate on 
repeal of Townshend Acts, 71- 
73 5 repeal of Townshend Acts 
except as to tea, 87 5 North min- 
istry, 8 7 j debate on destruction 
of tea, IIO-II2; five acts to 
regulate colonies, 112— 115; op- 
position to the five acts, 11 8 5 
attempt to avert war, 131 ; king's 
policy approved, 132, 191 ; Mas- 
sachusetts declared in rebellion, 
132 j further coercive acts, 1325 
hiring of German troops discussed, 
190; American ports closed, 206 5 
impressment of Americans or- 
dered, 206 5 debate on North's 
conciliation measures, II. 8— II ; 
fall of North ministry, 348, 12. 
I ; "Whig approval of the Revo- 
lution, 2, 3 ; measures of Rock- 
ingham ministry, 7 ; Shelburne 
ministry, 19 j Whig breach, 19; 
Fox - North coalition, 44-50 ; 
attack on treaty of peace, 50 ; fall 
of Shelburne m.inistry, 51 5 coali- 
tion ministry, 52 ^ adoption of 
the treaty, 53; rebukes personal 
interference of George III., 545 
fall of coalition ministry, 55 ; Pitt 
ministry, 55. See also Colonies, 
Crown, England, George III. 
Parris, Samuel, minister of Salem 



158; his household and the be- 
ginnings of the witchcraft delu- 
sion, 159-161, 192. 

Parsons, Holden, and the Ohio Com- 
pany, 12. 241. 

Parsons' Cause, 10. 21—23. 

Patagonians, 2. 436 n., 3. 96. 

Paterson, William, member of the 
Federal Convention, 12. 271 ; 
ofiers the New Jersty plan, 290 ; 
on equal state representation, 
293-295 J becomes a Federalist, 
302. 

Patroons. See Manors. 

Patterson, Alexander, in Wyoming 
valley, 12. 176-178. 

Patuxent Indians, 4. 341. 

Paul III., pope, forbids further en- 
slavement of Indians, 3. 301. 

Paulding, John, arrests Andre, II. 
268. 

Paulus Hook, N. J., British fort, 
Lee's exploit against, 11. 140. 

Pawnees, Indian group, I. 50, 57. 

Peace of 1783, obstacles, 12. 9; 
question of preliminary acknow- 
ledgment of independence, 10, 16, 
25, 26 ; informal negotiations, 
10-125 England's preliminary 
offer, 12-145 French demands 
on England, 145 Vergennes's 
hostility to American interests, 
20-25, 275 boundary questions, 
21-23, -95 fishery questions, 
24, 27, 30, 43 ; Jay's suspicions 
of Vergennes, 25 5 negotiations 
begin, 26 5 Americans negotiate 
independent of France, 27-29, 
39, 41 ; failure to establish com- 
mercial freedom, 31 ; question of 
private debts, 31 ; question of 
indemnifying loyalists, 33-38, 50, 
53 ; preliminary articles signed, 
38; secret article, 38, 247; an 
American triumph, 40 5 English- 
Spanish treaty, 42 ; French-Eng- 
lish treaty, 43 ; Dutch-EnglJsh 
treaty, 44 ; American treaty un- 



507 



GENERAL INDEX 



of a commerce treaty, 53 ; treaty 
signed, 53 ; Congress unable to 
carry out its provisions, 142, 1555 
resulting British action, 155-158. 

Pearl Coast, Columbus at, 2. 188 ; 
question of discovery, 263, 268- 
270 ; voyages of La Cosa and 
Vespucius, 410 ; Las Casas's at- 
tempted colony, 3. 284-287. 

Pearson, Richard, fight with Paul 
Jones, II. 153-158 ; knighted, 
158 n. 

Pedrarias Davila (Pedro Arias de 
Avila), governor of Spanish main- 
land colonies, character, 3. 190; 
and Balboa, 1 91-197 5 super- 
seded, 201 ; founds Panama, 201 ; 
retains governorship, 202 5 and 
Gonzalez, 204 5 death, 208. 

Pegolotti, Francesco, Florentine 
merchant, book on route to China, 

I- 333- 

Peirce, Michael, killed by Indians, 
6. 295. 

Pell, Thomas, settlement at Pelham 
Manor, 7. 319. 

Pembroke, Earl of, in London Com- 
pany, 4. 81. 

Penn, Sir William, and his son, 8. 

132, n4- 

Penn, William, grant, 5. 168, 8. 
172-1745 character, 114, 1375 
birth and education, 132; as a 
Quaker, 133-162 ; appearance, 
1345 and his father, 134; mar- 
riage, 152 5 home life, 152 ; in- 
terest in West Jersey, 162, 169 5 
claim against the Crown, 171 5 
purpose in colonizing, 171 ; story 
of his Tudor ancestry, 175 n.5 
principles of his government, 178- 
180, 359 5 in Pennsylvania, 181 ; 
lays out Philadelphia, 1825 on 
Pennsylvania, 183 ; treaty with 
the Indians, 184; influence over 
the Indians, 186 5 return to Eng- 
land, 1945 grant revoked and 
restored, 253, 354, 356; plan 
of union, 256; and James II., 



343-345> 347, 35 M Macaulay's 
charges against, 345-347, 353,n-; 
and the Seven Bishops atfiiir, 
3 5 1 ; accused of Jacobite compli- 
city, 352 ; retirement, 353 ; and 
Locke, 353, 354; and William 
III., 354, 363 ; widowed and 
remarried, 356 ; second visit to 
Pennsylvania, 356 ; life in Penn- 
sylvania, 357, 358 5 return to 
England, 364; financial difficul- 
ties, 368 5 last years, 369 5 heirs, 
369 5 heirs indemnified after the 
Revolution, 12. 84. 

Penn, William (third), character, 
8. 367. 

Pennsylvania, charter, 5. 168, 8. 
176-178, 432-4495 boundaries, 
5. 168,8. 172-1745 transported 
convicts in, 5. 2155 Baltimore a 
port of, 3145 German settlers, 
372, 8. 406-410 5 why the In- 
dians were peaceful, 6. 261, 8. 
191-1945 religious liberty, 115, 
178, 361, 362, 12. 89 5 modern 
tyranny, 8. 168 5 Penn's purpose 
in settling, 171 5 naming of, 176 ; 
principles of Penn's government, 
178-180 5 rapid growth, 180, 
194, 382-384 5 Penn's opinion, 

183 5 treaty with the Indians, 

1 84 5 land purchases from tha In- 
dians, 1895 strategic position, 
243 5 temporary royal province. 
253, 355, 356 ; politics,_ 358- 

360, 372 5 second constitution, 

361, 3625 and colonial defence, 
363 5 Evans's false alarm, 365 ; 
Evans's powder money, 367 5 co- 
lonial culture, 370-378 5 schools, 
375 5 economic conditions, 378 ; 
slavery and servitude, 379—381 ; 
law and order, 381 5 philanthropy, 
382 5 distribution centre for non- 
English population. 385 5 Scotch- 
Irish settlers, 413 5 western claim., 
g. 268, II. 116, 117 5 attitude 
of the assembly on Fort Duque.sne, 
g. 277 5 troops for campaign of 



508 



GENERAL INDEX 



1759, 343 5 influences adverse 
to the Revolution, 10. 135 5 joins 
common cause, 137 5 dispute over 
independence, 218—220 5 strife 
over Wyoming Valley, li. 105- 
107, 12. 175-179; early state 
government, 79 ; indemnification 
of the proprietary, 84 ; gradual 
emancipation, 87 ; council of cen- 
sors, 178; paper money, 202; 
contest over ratification of the 
Constitution, 371-378. iSee also 
Colonies, Philadelphia, and battles 
by name. 

Pennsylvania-Dutch dialect, 8. 409. 

Penobscot River, Maine, and No- 
rumbega, 7. 81, 87, 89, 91, g. 
52. 

Pensacola, Fla. , Spanish besiege, n. 
167, 346. 

Pepperell, William, commands the 
attack on Louisburg, 9. 25 1; cre- 
ated a baronet, 256. 

Pequawket Indians, Lovewell's fight, 
g. 246-248. 

Pequot Indians, location and supre- 
macy, I. 52, 6. 147, 148, 7. 
1725 war, 6. 156-163, 7. 175, 
178-180. 

Percy, Lord, at Concord, 10. 146 ; 
hesitates to attack Dorchester 
Heights, 201 5 at Long Island, 
243 ; sent to occupy Newport, 
267. 

Percy, George, on suffering at James- 
town, 4. 114; and Smith, 123 ; 
commands in Virginia, 179, 191. 

Perestrelo, Bartholomew, at Porto 
Santo, I. 3705 governor, 2. 22 ; 
Columbus studies his charts, 24. 

Perez, Juan, prior of La Rabida, 
interest in Columbus's scheme, 2. 
92. 

Peru, list of Incas, 3. 100 n,; de- 
velopment of nationality, 122, 
138, 166 ; beginnings, 123 ; gov- 
"^rnment of conquests, 124, 130, 
131 5 conquestbp 125-128 5 rebel- 
lion suppressed, 128 j civil war. 



129, 212 ; extent of empire, 129— 
131 ; military roads, i 31-13 3 ; 
couriers, 133, I34n.5 rope bridges, 
135 ; military colonies, 136 ; rea- 
son for easy conquest by Spanish, 
J 38, 241-243; ruling caste of 
Incas, 139; power and charac- 
ter of the Inca, 141-145, 151- 
155 ; religion, 145-151 ; Span- 
ish first hear of, 187, 189; Bal- 
boa prepares an expedition for, 
192-194; Morales's expedition 
toward, 200 : origin of the name, 
200 ; Pizarro's plans, 206 ; l:is 
first attempts, 207-210 ; Pizarro 
reaches the coast, 210 ; landing 
of the Pizarros, 214 ; Spanish 
and Atahualpa at Caxamarca, 21 5-' 
217 ; capture and ransom of Ata- 
hualpa, 218-220 ; division of the 
spoil, 220 ; execution of Ata- 
hualpa, 221-223 ; first attack on 
the Spanish, 223 ; Manco pro- 
claimed Inca by Pizarro, 224 ; 
influx of Spanish adventurers, 225 ; 
rising against the Spanish, 227- 
229, 231 ; Spanish civil war, 
229-231 ; Pizarro's rule, 235 ; 
Pizarro assassinated, 235 ; Castro's 
rule, 236 ; New Laws and Gon- 
zalo Pizarro's rebellion, 237 ; 
overthrow of Gonzalo Pizarro, 
238—240; conquest completed, 
240 ; last Incas, 243-246 ; pi- 
rates on the coast, 5. 420. Ue 
also Peruvians. 
Peruvians, culture status, i 25, 36, 
39, 3. 97, 116, 122, 155, 156- 
158 ; method of recording, 97- 
ico ; age of culture, loi, 
1 03-1 17 ; architecture, 102-1 1 1, 
167-169 ; domesticated animals. 
113 ; agriculture, 113, 116, 122, 
169; tools, 117; hindrances to 
development, 117, 121 ; -tribes, 

123 ; appearance, 123 ; consoli- 
dation and dominance of Incas, 

124 ; calculation of the year 
147 n. ; drink, 148 n. ; mum. 



/;og 



GENERAL INDEX 



mies, 151 ; clan system, 156- 
161 j development of family, 
161 J industrial organization, 162- 
1675 allotment of land, 1635 
division of produce, 164, 1675 
hunts, 170; development of arts, 
171 ; compared with Mexicans 
and Mayas, 172-1765 fear of 
horses, 217 n. 5 paralyzed by 
presence of Spaniards, 219, 220. 
See also Peru. 

Peters, Samuel, his Blue Laws, 6. 
166. 

Philadelphia, population in 1776, 5. 
246 ; laid out, 8. 182 ; growth, 
182 5 in 1700, 357 ; theatre, 378; 
population in 1750, 379 5 Jews in, 
392 5 centrality, 10. 9, 3565 action 
on tea question, 99, 108 5 Congress 
meets, 130, 1555 panic, 266, 

371 ; strategic value as capital, 
3565 Howe's advance, 365- 

372 5 British occupy, 372 j Mis- 
chianza, 11. 67 j British evacu- 
ate, 68 ; loyalists leave, 68 5 Ar- 
nold commands, 69, 248 ; recep- 
tion of Washington's army, 3345 
Federal Convention meets, 17,. 
263. See also Pennsylvania. 

Philesius Vosgesigena. See Ring- 

mann. 
Philip II. of Spain, and Las Casas, 

3. 308 } and the Huguenots, 

351- 

Philip, Wampanoag chief. See King 
Philip's War. 

Philippine Islands, Magellan dis- 
covers, 2. 442 5 Magellan's death, 
443-445 j retained by Spain, 3. 
319. 

Philipse, Frederick, and Leisler, S. 
210, 219, 221 n. 

Phillips, William, British general, at 
capture of Ticonderoga, 10. 3155 
in Virginia, 11. 3135 death, 

323- 
Phips, Sir William, governor of 
Massachusetts, 9. 169, 203 5 wife 
accused of witchcraft, 1 84. 

51 



Phoenicians, voyages on African 
coast, I. 342-348. 

Phratry, growth from clan, I. 72 ; 
origin and structure of Indian, 
84 5 analogy to Teutonic hun- 
dred, 85 5 in Mexico City, 121, 

1^.3, 3- 59- . 

Physicians in Virginia, 5. 303-305. 

Pickens, Andrew, defeats loyalists 
in South Carolina, 11. 2045 par- 
tisan commander, 221 ; at Cow- 
pens, 305. 

Pickering, Timothy, and the British 
retreat from Lexington, 10. 147. 

Pierre of Dieppe, buccaneer, 5. 408. 

Pigafetta, Chevalier Antonio, jour- 
nal on Magellan's voyage, 2. 
430. 

Pigot, Sir Robert, at Bunker Hill, 
I. 165 ; commands Newport, 2. 
91 5 at Butts Hill, 96. 

Pilgrims, grant near the Delaware, 
4. 276, 6. 96, 97 ; in Holland, 
86-89 5 migration to America, 
94-99 5 land at Cape Cod, 99 j 
found Plymouth, 99 j compact, 
155 n. 5 desire to settle in New 
Netherland, 7. 126-128. See 
also Plymouth, Scrooby congrega- 
tion. 

Pinckney, C. C, member of the 
Federal Convention, 12. 270 ; on 
slave representation and slave-trade, 
306, 311 5 in the South Carolina 
ratifying convention, 398. 

Pinckney, Charles, member of the 
Federal Convention, 12. 270. 

Pineda, Alvarez de, discovers the 
Mississippi, 3. 316. 

Pinzon, Martin Alonzo, and Colum- 
bus at La Rabida, 2. 92 ; in 
Columbus's first expedition, 104; 
deserts, 119; overtaken, 122 j 
treacherous attempt to get the 
credit of the discovery, 126 ; death, 
127. 

Pinzon, Vicente Yaiiez, in Colum- 
bus's first expedition, 2. 104 j 
voyage to Mexican coast, 283- 

O 



GENERAL INDEX 



2937 307-3"> 3^1 n- ; voyages 
to South America, 321, 4125 
proposed voyage to the La Plata, 
409. 

Piracy, Elizabethan sea kings not 
pirates, 4. 28, 5. 399 5 ancient, 
395 ; on Mediterranean Sea and 
Indian Ocean, 396, 12. 188-191; 
vikings not pirates, 5. 397 5 at- 
tributes, 397-400 ; cause of great 
development in seventeenth cen- 
tury, 400-403, 8. 258 5 develop- 
ment of West Indian buccaneer- 
ing, 5. 403-409 ; blackmail, 
409 ; Morgan's career, 409-417 j 
international action against the 
buccaneers, 413, 417, 421 5 sack 
of Panama, 413-415 ; decline of 
West Irdian, 417 5 in the South 
Sea, 418-4215 relation of the 
English colonies to, 421-431, 8. 
260-263, 2675 Blackbeard's ca- 
reer, 5, 427-429, 431 5 Bonnet's 
career, 429-43 1; Kidd's career, 
429, 8. 263-265, 268-274 5 
Madagascar rendezvous, 259. 

Pirua, traditional Peruvian dynasty, 
3. 103, 112. 

Pitcairn, John, British major, at 
Lexington, 10. 144 5 killed at 
Bunker Hill, 168. 

Pitt, W^illiam (elder), controls war 
affairs, g. 315 ; popularity, 316 ; 
policy of destruction of New 
France, 342 5 denounces Stamp 
Act, 10. 30 5 upholds parliamen- 
tary control of colonies, 3 i ; Earl 
of Chatham, ministry, 32; leader 
of New Whigs, 49; George III.'s 
hatred, 49, 11. 16, 26 5 on state 
papers of Congress, 10. 131 j final 
attempt to avert war, 131; con- 
demns hiring of German troops, 
1905 clings to hope of concilia- 
tion, II. 7, 20 5 England's hope 
in 1778, 14-17- proposed colo- 
nial policy, 17-19} death, 20 5 
greatness, 21—26. 

Piit, William (younger), on the 

51 



Revolution, ii. 345 5 introduces 
question of parliamentarv reform, 
12. 7 ; in Shelburne ministry, 19; 
ministry, 55 • character, 55 ; free- 
trade bill, 162. 

Pittsburg, Penn., named, g. 341 ; 
importance, 11. 116; rival claims 
to, 116. iSee also Fort Duquesne. 

Pizarro, Fernando, accompanies his 
brother to Peru, 3. 211 5 character, 
211 5 in Spain, 221 ; return to 
Peru, 226 5 besieged in Cuzco, 
228 5 captured by Almagro, 23O} 
released, 230 ; executes Almagro, 
230 } reception in Spain, 231. 

Pizarro, Francisco, in Darien, 3. 
181 ; early years, 199 ; partner- 
ship for expedition to Peru, 206 ; 
fiist attempts, 207-209; on coast 
of Peru, 210; in Spain, 211 ; 
captain-general, 211 5 brothers, 
211; in Peru, 212, 214 ; consid- 
ered a god, 215, 220 n., 224; 
meeting with Atahualpa, 215- 
217; and Cortes, 217; seizes 
Atahualpa, 218 5 receives ransom, 
219 ; executes Atahualpa, 221 — 
223 5 march to Cuzco, 223 ; 
proclaims Manco Inca, 224 ; 
founds Lima, 226 ; created a 
marquis, 226 ; extent of his gov- 
ernment, 226 ; assassinated, 235. 

Pizarro, Gonzalo, accompanies his 
brother to Peru, 3. 212 ; besieged 
in Cuzco, 228 ; captured by Al- 
magro, and escapes, 230 ; expedi- 
tion over the Andes, 233-235 ; 
successful rebellion, 237 ; defeat 
and execution, 238-240 ; aims 
at independence, 302 n. 

Pizarro, Juan, goes to Peru with his 
brother, 3. 212 ; death, 229. 

Plantation life in Virginia, 5. 256— 
274. 

Plymouth, Mass. , political conditions, 
4. 328 5 named, 6. 93, 99 n. j 
founded, 99, 7. 128 ; hardships, 
6. 99 ; reinforcement, lOi ; re- 
lation with Indians, loi— 104 j 

I 



GENERAL INDEX 



acquires title, 105 ; significance, 
105 5 slow growth, 106 ; Merry- 
mount dispersed, 1 1 1 5 trouble with 
Cape Ann settlement, 1125 fort 
on the Connecticut, 149, 7. I 74 ; 
tolerant, 6. 186 ; Gorton ban- 
ished, 201 5 Holmes rebuked, 
218; annexed to Massachusetts, 
344 5 intercourse with New 
Netherland, 7. 143 ,' ostracizes a 
mandamus councillor, 10. 125. 
See also King Philip's War, New 
England, Pilgrims. 

Plymouth Company, charter, 4. 71- 
76, 6. 90 5 members, 4. 79 ; at- 
tempted colony, 83, 6. 92 5 grant 
to Pilgrims, 105 5 new patent, 
108. See aha Council for New 
England. 

Po, Fernando, Portuguese navigator, 
crosses the equator, I. 373. 

Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan, 
and Captain John Smith, 4. 121- 
131, 203 5 aids the settlers, 131, 
1625 seized as a hostage, 1985 
marriage and conversion, 199 5 
visit to England, 202 ; death, 2045 
descendants, 204. 

Point Comfort, Va., named, 4. 108. 

Point Pleasant, W. Va., battle, 11. 
121. 

Poles in Virginia, 4. 144 ; fran- 
chised, 270. 

Political standards, of colonies and 
England compared, 10. 18, 84, 985 
high, in Pvlassachusetts, 138. 

Politics, beginning of continental, 5. 
439 ; birth of Toryism in Massa- 
chusetts, 6. 322, 9. 201 ; in New 
York, 8. 250, 305-308; in Penn- 
sylvania, 358 ; first American par- 
ties, 12. 369. See also Assem- 
blies. 

Pollock, Thomas, and Sothel, 5. 
334 5 president of North Carolina 
council, 355. 

Polo, Maffeo, of Venice, at court 
of Kublai Khan, i. 323, 324 ; 
return to Venice, 325. 

5 



Polo, Marco, sonof Nicolo, in China, 

1. 324 ; return to Venice, 325 5 
dictates account of travels, 327 j 
title and importance of book, 328; 
effect, 329, 331 ; on Ouinsay, 

2. 32 n. 

Polo, Nicolo, brother of Maffeo, a; 
court of Kublai Khan, i. 323, 
324 5 return to Venice, 325. 

Polybius on an encompassing ocean, 

I- 341. 

Pomeroy, Benjamin, punished for 
revivalism, 9. 230. 

Pomeroy, Seth, in Johnson's army, 
9. 296 ; at siege of Boston, 10. 
177. 

Ponca Indians, I. 48. 

Ponce de Leon, Juan, in Colum- 
bus's second expedition, 2. 1535 
governor of Porto Rico, 3. 29 5 
search for fountain of youth, 315 ; 
discovers Florida, 3165 attempted 
colony and death, 316. 

Pontgrave (Franc^ois Grave, Sieur 
du Pont), monopoly of the fur- 
trade, 9. 36, 37 j and Cham- 
plain in Canada, 41, 60, 62. 

Pontiac, Ottawa chief, at Fort Du- 
quesne, 9. 289. 

Poor whites, origin and distribution, 
5. 218-220, 368-371, 373- 
376, 6. 173. 

Popham, George, in Plymouth 
Company, 4. 79 ; attempted col- 
ony, 83, 6. 92. 

Popham, Sir John, in Plymouth 
Company, 4. 71, 6. 92 ; as a 
highwayman, 4. 95. 

Population, Iroquois confederacy, I. 
87 n. ; Zuni pueblo, 104 5 Cho- 
lula pueblo, 107; overestimation 
of Mexican, 121 n. ; Greenland, 
256 ; Mexico City, 3. 57 ; Eng- 
land in 1575, 4. 25 ; Virginia in 
1619, 2195 in 1622, 222; in 
1670, 5. 7, 27; in 1700 and 
1750, 222; Maryland in 1675, 
4. 323; colonial in 1715, 5. 
196 n. j New York. City m 

12 



GENERAL INDEX 



1776, 246; in 1680, 8. 105; 
Philadelphia in 1776, 5. 2465 
in 1685, 8. 194 5 in 1700, 357 ; 
Baltimore in 1770, 5. 314; 
North Carolina in 1760, 384; 
South Carolina in 1760, 3845 
Georgia in 1770, 392 ; Ply- 
mouth in 1643, 6. 106; Massa- 
chusetts in 1634, 133 ; in 1643, 
211 ; in 1675, 323 5 Connecticut 
in 1637, 1545 New England in 
1640, 1665 New England Con- 
federacy in 1643, 188, 192} 
Boston in 1675, 323 ; dense urban, 
in the mediaeval Netherlands, 7. 
225 New Netherland in 1653 
and 1664, 2675 Pennsylvania in 
1685, 8. 1945 New York in 
1735, 301 ; Pennsylvania cities in 
l75o> 379} slave, in 1790, 12. 

315 n- 
Porter, John, and the test oath in 

North Carolina, 5. 344; accused 

of inciting the Tuscaroras, 347. 
Portland, Duke of, nominal prime 

minister, 12. 52. 
Portland, Maine, burnt by British, 

10. 192. 

Port Royal (Annapolis), Acadia, 
founded, g. 52 ; Lescarbot's pa- 
geant, 55 ; early life at, 56 ; 
Poutrincourt returns to, 72 5 Jesu- 
its arrive, 75 ; burnt by Argall, 
79 5 rebuilt, 79 ; Aunay con- 
trols, 94 5 French attack, 250. 
See also Acadia. 

Port Royal, S. C, Huguenot col- 
ony* 3- 343 5 Scotchmen settle 
and Spanish destroy, 5. 336 5 
British attack, 11. 204. 

Porto Rico, discovered, 2. 154. 

Portsmouth, N. H., settled, 6. 146. 

Portsmouth, R. I., settled, 6. 146, 
201 } incorporated in Rhode Is- 
land, 190. 

Portsmouth, Va., sacked by British, 

11. 132. 

Portugal, prepared for maritime ad- 
venture, I. 339 } exploration of 



coast of Africa, 371-375, 381 \ 
papal grant of heathen countries, 
373 5 effort to locate Presterjohn, 
380 5 rejects Columbus's plan, 
2. 74-76 } bull of demarca- 
tion, 142-148 ; treaty of Torde- 
sillas, 148 j Gama reaches Hin- 
dustan, 191 ; northwest voyages, 
2'33» 9- 6, 7 ; claims in North 
America, 2. 235 ; colony on Cape 
Breton Island, 236, g. 7; estab- 
lishment of claim to Brazil, 2. 
323 ; Vespucius serves, 325 5 con- 
trols East Indian trade, 416-418, 
7. 55 j and Magellan, 2. 426, 
429 5 controversy with Spain over 
East Indies, 3. 318; effect of 
Spanish annexation, 395, 7. 57. 
See also Henry the Navigator. 

Posidonius, on an encompassing ocean, 
I. 341 J on size of earth, 2. 48. 

Post, C. F. , Moravian missionary, 
secures Indian alliance, g. 341. 

Post, Virginia legislature and the 
Post-office Act, 5. 435-438 5 
Spotswood postmaster - general, 
455 5 established between New 
York and Boston, 8. 21-25 j 
conditions in 1783, 12. 73; 
control under the Articles of Con- 
federation, 115. 

Potato, culture in Peru, 3. 113, 

114- 

Potomac River, interstate confer- 
ence on its improvement, 12. 253. 

Pott, Francis, 4. 346 5 and Harvey, 
4- 346, 347- 

Pott, John, governor of Virginia, 
character, 4. 295 ; convicted of 
several offences, 296 ; pardoned, 
296 ; and Baltimore, 309 5 and 
Harvey, 348. 

Pottawatomie Indians, I. 51, g. 
100, 105, 114. 

Potts, Richard, on early conditions 
in Virginia, 4. 113. 

Pouchot, M., defends Fort Niagara, 
g. 346 5 surrenders, 347. 

Poutrincourt, Baron de, in Acadia 



13 



GENERAL INDEX 



with Monts, 9. 51 ; founds Port 
Royal, 52 } on the coast of New 
England, 54 5 greeting at Port 
Royal, 51; ; returns to Port Royal, 
72 ; and the Jesuits, 75 ; death. 

Powder money incident in Pennsyl- 
vania, 8. 367. 

Powhatan, Indian chief, called an 
emperor, I. 1 1 1 n., 4. 1 1 1 5 and 
Smith, 120-130, 132, 153-163 j 
crowned, 133. 

Powhatans, Algonquin Indians, I. 
51 ; and the Virginia settlers, 4. 
110-112, 118-135, 141, 149, 
153-166, 198-2005 massacres 
of the settlers, 223, 3575 retire 
before the advancing settlement, 
264, 269 5 present condition, 

5- 84. 

Pownall, William, colonial pclicy, 

10. 70, 71, 112. 
Presbyterianism, in England, 6. 78, 

214, 215 5 Melville on, 82 ; 
James I.'s hatred, 82-84; New 
Hampshire settlers, 171 ; cabal in 
Massachusetts, 213-215; ten- 
dency in Connecticut, 9. 215- 
218 ; in Virginia, 12. 96 ; 
American organization, 102. See 
also Scotch- Irish. 
Prescott, Richard, British general, 
commands at Newport, character, 

11. 90 ; captured, 90; exchanged 
for Lee, 91. 

Prescott, William, commands at 
Bunker Hill, 10. 162. 

President of Congress under the Ar- 
ticles of Confederation, 12. 114. 
See also Executive. 

Presqu'Isle (Erie), Penn., French 
blockhouse, g. 268. 

Press, forbidden in Virginia, 5. 286 ; 
censorship in Massachusetts, 6. 
338 ; development in the Neth- 
erlands, 7. 19 ; in colonial Penn- 
sylvania, 8. 375 ; attempts to 
abridge freedom, 10. 3 ; Quebec 



Act on, 115. See also News- 
papers, Zenger. 

Prester, John, mythical Christian po- 
tentate in the East, i. 329 ; Friar 
Odoric on, 332 n. ; believed to 
be in Africa, 380 n. 

Preston, Thomas, British captain, 
in Boston Massacre, 10. 78. 

Prevost, Augustine, British general, 
invades Georgia, 11. 202; bar- 
barity, 203, 205 ; advance to 
Charleston, 206 ; refuses South 
Carolina's offer of neutrality, 209 ; 
retreat, 210. 

Prideaux, John, English general, ex- 
pedition against Fort Niagara, 9. 
345 •■> killed, 346. 

Priesthood, Aztec, l. 123, 132, 
136,3-72-745 Peruvian, 150. 
See also Religion. 

Primary assembly, in Maryland, 4. 
332 ; town meeting, 5. 38 ; Ger- 
manic, 6. 29 ; in Plymouth, 100 ; 
attempted in Massachusests, 128. 
See also Representation. 

Primogeniture, in Virginia, 5. 40 ; 
abolished, 12. 83. 

Princeton, N. J., battle, lO. 173. 

Pring, Martin, voyage to New Eng- 
land, 4. 65. 

Printz, John, governor of New 
Sweden, 7. 279-281. 

Prison ships and Newgate prison, 11. 
137 n. 

Privateering, origin, 5. 401 ; Con- 
gress authorizes, 10. 206 ; in the 
Revolution, 11. 146, 147. 

Privileges and Exemptions, New 
Netherland charter, 7. 154-159. 

Proban-zas, trial to secure rights 
of heirs of Columbus, 2. 267- 
270. 

Property, private effect on society, 
I. 73 ; common, of Indians, 80, 
122 ; private, of AzteCo, 142 ; 
earliest private, in cattle, 3. 119 ; 
lack of development of private, in 
Peru, 124. See also Communism. 



SH 



GENERAL INDEX 



Prostitution, among the Aztecs, i. 
141 5 among the Peruvians, 3. 
161. 

Protestantism, true lesson, 3. 399 5 
iniiuence on English interest in 
America, 4.13; struggle lor con- 
trol in America, 5. 4405 compared 
with Roman Catholicism, 6. 44 5 
early heresies, 45 ; revival, 49 5 
Lollards, 49, 61-66 ; English Re- 
formation, 51-54, 66; failure in 
France, 54, 1 22 5 Calvin's theo- 
logy, 67-705 crisis in 1629, 122; 
debt to Puritans, 183. iiee also 
Puritans, Religion, and sects by 
name. 

Providence (Annapolis), Md., Puri- 
tans settle, 4. 366 ; attempted 
independence, 367 ; becomes the 
capital, 5. 188. 

Providence, R. I., beginnings, 6. 
141 5 incorporated in Rhode 
Island, 190 5 Gorton in, 202- 

204. 

Prussia. See Frederick tl e Great. 

Ptolemy, Claudius, map of the 
world, I. 303 5 on the far East, 
321 ; disbelief in an encompassing 
ocean, 341, 350; on size of 
earth, 2. 48 5 influence on early 
cartography of New World, 354, 
372, 378, 380, 3. 327; editions 
of his work, 2. 363. 

Pueblo Indians, of same race as other 
Indians, I. 25 ; culture status, 
96—99, 103 ; social basis, 102 ; 
government, 103 ; Spanish mis- 
conceptions, III; criticism of 
Spanish accounts, 1 14-1 18. See 
also Aztecs, Mayas, Mexicans, 
and next title. 

Pueblos, origin, I. 99 ; type, 100; 
description, 104-109 ; question 
of existence in Peru, 3. 157. See 
also Mexico City, 

Pulaski, Count Casimir, volunteers 
in American cause, 10. 283 ; 
with southern army, II. 210 ; 
killed at Savannah, 212. 



Punishments. See Crimes. 

Puricans, attitude toward education, 
4. 276, 6. i82-iy5> 8. 374; 
treatment in Virginia, 4. 353— 
359 ; relation with Separatism, 
353, 6. 76, 78, 79, 131 ; settle- 
mer.t in Maryland, 365-367; 
governors of Virginia, 568 ; rule 
in Maryland, 370-373 ; com- 
pared with the Cavaliers, 5. 14, 
32 ; later conditions in Maryland, 
174, 190, 394; survival in the 
South, 394, 462 ; debt of civil 
liberty to, 6. 9, 43, 59-61, 83, 
308-310; origin, 52, 53, 65 ; 
relation with Elizabeth, 53, 70— 
72 ; significance of migration, 57 ; 
become Calvinists, 71 ; become 
powerful, 72 ; sea rovers, 72 ; 
geographical distribution, 73-76, 
7. 44 ; not advocates of religious 
liberty, 6. 77, 175-177 ; opposed 
to hierarchy, 78 ; disagreement 
on ecclesiastical polity, 78 ; Mel- 
ville's exposition, 82 ; James I.'s 
hatred, 82-85 5 motive of emi- 
gration, 94 ; scheme for refuge in 
America, 113, 114, 123; crisis 
in England, 118, 122; deny pri- 
vate inspiration, 144, 180, 228 ; 
militant spirit, 162, 289, 303 ; 
end of migration, 166 ; results of 
migration, 166-175; theocracy, 
177, 309 ; ethical impulse, 178 5 
appeal to resson, 179 ; interpreta- 
tion of Scriptures, 180; individ- 
ual opinion and intellectual vigor, 
180-182; value of theological 
discussion, 182; methods destroy 
their ideals, 183 ; intellectual cor- 
respondence of Scotland and New 
England, 183 ; self-consciousness, 
304-309 ; reliance on Old Testa- 
ment, 305 ; judged by wiong 
standard, 307 ; influence of the 
Netherlands, 7. 46. See also 
Congregationalism, Massachusetts^ 
New England, Pilgrims, Religion^ 
Separatists. 



515 



GENERAL INDEX 



Putnam, Ann, wife of Thomas, and 
the Salem witchcraft, 9. 160, 
194.. See also Salem Village. 

Putnam, Ann, daughter of Thomas, 
and the Salem witchcraft, 9. 160 ; 
confession, 186. See <2Ao Salem 
Village. 

Putnam, Israel, in Johnson's army, 

9. 296 ; in Abercrombie's army, 
320 ; rescued from the stake, 
333; joins the army before Boston, 

10. 148 5 at Bunker Hill, 1635 
commands Brooklyn Heights, 
242 5 successful retreat from New 
York City, 251 5 cjmmands Fort 
Washington, 253 ; commands 
Philadelphia, 266 5 commands the 
Hudson Highlands, 304 5 com- 
pelled to evacuate by Clinton, 
391. 

Putnam, Rufus, and the Ohio Com- 
pany, 12. 240. 

Quakers, in Virginia, 5. 66 ; in 
Maryland, 161, 178, 192; and 
the test oath in North Carolina, 
344, 356; creed, 6. 227-230, 
8. 125-129, 138-147, 1615 
eccentric actions, 6. 230, 231 n.; 
aggressiveness, 232, 8. 130; per- 
secution in Massachusetts, 6. 232- 
242, 251, 8. 131 5 Roger Wil- 
liams protects, 6. 234-236; Charles 
n.'s order concerning, 243 ; In- 
dian war a punishment for tolerat- 
ing, 279 ; persecution in New 
Netherland, 7. 270-272 5 buy 
Berkeley's interest in New Jersey, 
8. 19 5 opposition to slavery, 127, 
380; origin of name, 128 ; con- 
fused w^ith other enthusiasts, 129 5 
and Calvinism, 130 5 Penn's con- 
version, 133; Penn's services, 
131; ; use of the pronouns, 147- 
150 5 settlement in West Jersey, 
164; and Catholics in England, 
346 ; attitude tov/ard education, 
374) 375 5 extent of exodus to 
Pennsylvania, 406 ; adverse to 

5 



the Revolution, 10. 136, 218. 
See also Pennsylvania. 
Quarry, Robert, acting governor of 
Carolina, complicity with pirates, 

5- 423- 

Quebec, Canada, founded, 3. 359, 
g. 60 ; meaning of the name, 
60 ; treason in, 61 5 first winter, 
62 5 early conditions, 88, 90 ; cap- 
tured by the English in 1628, 91 ; 
restored to France, 92 5 unsuccess- 
ful expedition against, in 1690, 156; 
situation, 349; position of French 
army in 1759, 3 5° 5 problems of 
attack, 3515 Wolfe prepares to 
get above, 352.-3555 bombard- 
ment, 353 5 English ascend to 
Plains of Abraham, 355 ; battle, 
356-358 5 fall, 359 ; march of 
the Americans against, 10. 194- 
197 5 unsuccessful assault, 197. 
See also Stadacona. 

Quebec Act, importance to the colo- 
nies, 10. 115. 

Quesada, Caspar, with Magellan, 2. 
428, 433, 436. _ 

Quetzalcoatl, Mexican god, attri- 
butes, 3. 20-23 5 contest with 
Tezcatlipoca, 24 5 exile, 25 ; in- 
fluence of expected return on re- 
ception of Spaniards, 26-29, 41, 
42, 78. 

Quevedo, Juan de, bishop of Darien, 
3. 191 ; on Indian mortality un- 
der Balboa's rule, 193 n. 

Quiches, Central American Indians, 

1. 96. See also Mayas. 
Quichuas, Peruvian tribe, 3. 123. 
Quidor, Iroquois name for Schuyler, 

2. 249. 

Quincy, Josiah, defends the soldiers, 

10. 86. 
Quincy, Mass., first settlements, 6. 

no. 
Quinine, introduction, 4. 5. 
Quinsay, China, Toscanelli on, 2. 

31 ; Polo on, 32 n. 
Quintanilla, Alonso de, interest in 

Columbus, 2. 79, 90, 95, 99. 

16 



GENERAL INDEX 



^ipus, Peruvian method of record- 
ing, 3- 97-IOO, 175- 

^uito, Ecuador, founded, 3. 127 ; 
Spanish conquer, 232. 

«2uit rent troubles, 5. 226, 336, 8. 
18, 179, 360. 

guitus, Peruvian tribe, 3. 127. 

Race, different meanings of term, I. 
26 5 and culture, 28 j evolution, 
28 n. 

Radisson, Pierre d' Esprit, Sieur, ex- 
plorations, g. 10 1. 

Rahl, J. G., Hessian colonel, at 
Trenton, 10. 264, 270 5 killed, 
270. 

Railroads, influence on the Union, 
12. 71. 

Rale, Sebastian, Jesuit missionar}-, at 
Norridgewock, g. 235-239, 241; 
killed, 244 ; character, 244. 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, voyage with 
Gilbert, 4. 33 ; and Elizabeth, 
34, 625 patent, 35, 36; at- 
tempted colony, 36-39, 41, 41- 
46, 64 5 battle of Cadiz, 44, 46 5 
seeks to interest Elizabeth in colo- 
nization, 51, 58 5 financial diffi- 
culties, 61 ; first expedition to 
Guiana, 63 5 literary companions, 
63 ; imprisoned, 64, 232 ; sec- 
ond expedition to Guiana, 233- 
235 5 executed, 235. 

Randolph, Edmund, member of the 
Federal Convention, 12. 271 ; pre- 
sents the Virginia plan, 276 5 on 
fundamental needs of the federal 
government, 279 ; refuses to sign 
the Constitution, 314, 363 5 sup- 
ports it in Virginia convention, 

403- 

Randolph, Edward, sent to Massa- 
chusetts, 6. 320 5 character, 320 ; 
intrigues against Massachusetts, 
321-323, 328. 

Randolph, Peyton, president of Con- 
gress, 10. 130. 

Ratcliffe, John, Virginia councillor, 
4. 108 •, president, 1175 deposed. 



132, 150 5 complains in Englandj 
138, 146 5 arrested in Virginia, 
178 ; killed by Indians, 179. 
Ratification of the Constitution, 
Congress submits the draft to the 
States, 12. 368 5 calling of the 
Pennsylvania convention, 372— 
374 ; pamphlet war, 374 j objec- 
tions in Pennsylvania, 376 ; lack 
of a bill of rights an objection, 376, 
394; Pennsylvania ratifies, 377; 
Delaware ratifies, 3775 New Jersey 
ratifies, 377 ; rejoicing and vio- 
lence, 378, 406, 4125 Georgia 
ratifies, 378 5 Connecticut ratifies, 
379 5 conditions in Massachu- 
setts, 379-382 5 composition of 
Massachusetts convention, 382 ; 
debates in Massachusetts conven- 
tion, 383-391 ; Boston mass 
meeting, 392 ; charges of cor- 
ruption, 393 5 Massachusetts rati- 
fies and suggests amendments, 
395-397; New Hampshire post- 
pones action, 397 ; Maryland rati- 
fies, 3975 contest in South 
Carolina, 397-400 ; importance 
of South Carolina's ratification, 
400 ; conditions in Virginia, 401 — 
403 ; debates in Virginia conven- 
tion, 403 5 Virginia ratifies, 404 j 
New Hampshire ratifies, 405 ; ne- 
cessity of New York's ratification, 
407 ; New York convention, 
408, 41 1 ; Federalist^ 409-41 1 ; 
New York ratifies, 4125 New 
York proposes another framing 
convention, 413 5 tardiness of 
Rhode Island and North Carolina, 

413- 

Rawdon, Lord Francis, British gen- 
eral, in the South, 11. 213, 215 ; 
at Camden, 227, 231, 314; de- 
feats Greene at Hobkirk's Hill, 
317; retreats, 317; at Ninety- 
Six, 318 ; goes to England, 319. 

Raynal, Abbe, depreciates discovery 
of America, 4. 2. 
I Recollets arrive in Canada, g. 86. 



517 



GENERAL INDEX 



Recreations, sports in Virginia, 5. 
276-281 ; music in Virginia, 
281 ; colonial theatres, 282, 387, 
8. 378 ; in North Carolina, 5. 
368 5 in South Carolina, 387 ; 
in New York, 8. 330, 331. 

Reed, Joseph, and Howe's negotia- 
tions, 10. 237 5 charges against 
Arnold, 11. 253 ; and the muti- 
nous troops, 290, 291. 

Reformation. See Protestantism. 

Regicides in New England, 6. 245- 
247, 275-277, 321. 

Regulating Act for government of 
Massachusetts, 10. 113; defied, 
124, 138; Suffolk County Re- 
solves on, 128 5 repealed, II. 8 ; 
made Revolution inevitable, 351. 

Regulators' War in North Carolina, 
10. 89. 

Religion, Indian, i. 61 ; Aztec, 
123, 136, 3. 20-27, 65-68, 
72-74 ; primitive union of church 
and state, i. 127, 3. 72-74, 144, 
154, 164, 8. 116-1195 human 
sacrifice, l. 136-138, 3. 33, 34, 
66-68,98,148-150, 157; con- 
version of the Northmen, i. 187 5 
Kublai Khan's desire for Christian 
missionaries frustrated, 324 5 con- 
quest and conversion, 365, 2. 150, 
443, 3. 88, 291, 306-308 5 vica- 
rious sacrifice, 80 n. 5 Peruvian, 
144-154; persecution in Europe, 

392-394, 396-404, 4- 9, 6. 46- 
50, 54, 55, 61, 67, 80, 81, 86, 
7.49,8. 387, 398-401; toleration 
and freedom in America, 4. 313, 
319, 362-365,5. 192,320,341, 
356, 6. 139, 186, 189, 224, 
234,7- 152,8. 3, 15, 115, 178, 
361, 362, 12. 89, 91-93, 96, 
242 ; intolerance and persecution 
in America, 4. 354-357, 365, 
371, 5. 188, 192-194, 197, 
341, 343, 6. 125, 131, 140, 
145, 210, 218-224, 226, 232, 
236-242, 7. 267-275, 8. 247, 
337, 349. 421, 12. 89-91 ; es- 

5 



tablished church in America, 5. 
188, 190, 305, 343, 377, 6. 
132, 12. 89, 92 ; debt to Roman 
Empire, 6.15; ignored in Massa- 
chusetts' charter, 117; theocracy 
in New England, 132, 165, 177, 
187, 191, 216, 309-312, 9. 
202 ; differences promote settle- 
ment of New England, 6. 147, 
150, 186, 187, 8. 120; policical 
bearing of intolerance, 6. 189, 
196, 279 ; Stuart policy of tolera- 
tion, 336, 8. 349-351 ; conver- 
sion of the Frisians, 7. 9 ; and 
commerciahsm, 47 ; disassociation 
of tolerance and devoutness, 8. 
116; vitality of persecution, i 21 ; 
Christianity and individuality, 1 22- 
125 ; effect of rigid organization, 
g. 213; condition in early years 
of eighteenth century, 220-222; 
Edwards on conversion, 224 ; re- 
vivals, 225 ; silence of the Con- 
stitution on, debated in Massa- 
chusetts convention, 12. 385. See 
also Indians (missions). Protestant- 
ism, Puritans, and sects by name. 

Rensselaer, Kilian van, patroonship, 
7. 161 ; death, 245. See also 
Rensselaerwyck. 

Rensselaer, Nicholas van, heresy 
charges, 8. 104. 

Rensselaerwyck, established, 7. l6l ; 
prosperity, 240 ; independence and 
usurpations, 242-249 ; obedience 
forced, 249. 

Repartimientos, origin, 2. 173, 3. 
255 ; reversion of encomiendas 
to, 303 ; abolished, 303. 

Representation, establishment in Vir- 
ginia, 4. 219-221 ; in Maryland, 
332-334, 5- 176, 177; and 
taxation, 125, 6. 37, 127, 10. 
19; in Georgia, 5. 392; un- 
known in Rome, 6. 18 ; impor- 
tance in English political methods, 
24 ; and federalism, 25, ?6 ; Ger- 
manic origin, 26, 29 ; essential ta 
stability, 26-28, 37; fallacy of 

18 



GENERAL INDEX 



small republics, 27, 12- ^9 5 de- 
velopment in England, 6. 2.9-36 ; 
in America, 30, 335 disuse on 
the continent, 39 ; established m 
Massachusetts, 127-129 ; first se- 
lectmen, 152; popular boards in 
New Netherland, 7. 209-211, 
219, 221, 238-240; petitioned for 
in New Netherland, 225 5 popular 
conventions in New Netherland, 
310-313,328 5 in New Jersey, 8. 
14, 1675 demanded in New 
York, 26, 49-5 ^ 197; in New 
York, 198, 231, 246; in Penn- 
sylvania, 361 ; right to, m New 
Hampshire, lO. 3 ; of colonies m 
Parliament, 40, 55 ; parliamen- 
tary, in 1767, 37, 47 5 u"<i^'^ ^^- 
ticles of Confederation, 12. 112. 
See also Legislature, Suffrage. 
Requisitions, colonies offer to Eng- 
land, 10. 20 ; on the states, II. 
238, 240, 12. 116 5 failure, 124. 
Revere, Paul, engraving on Boston 
Massacre, lO. 86 ; carries news 
of Boston Tea Party, 107 5 carries 
warning of approach of British 
troops, 142. 
Revolution, American, foreshadowed, 
5. 199, 439. 446, 447, 6. 346; 
opening scene, lO. i 5 5 influence on 
British politics, 51, 1 1. 349 5 ^^'^^ 
days, 10. 266, II. 30, 236, 246 5 
British plans for 1777, 10. 305- 
3145 four periods, II. 1-5 5 
Germain's policy from 1778, 2.8 ; 
in the North, 1 778-1 781, 88, 
98, 131, 198; cardinal events on 
the' frontier, 1 30 ; becomes a 
phase in a world contest, 160; 
evils of political chaos, 237 ; war 
of principles, 350, 355 ; conser- 
vatism, 350, 12. 75, i°4 5 neces- 
sary to union, II. 354 5 cessation 
of hostilities, 12. 59; reason for 
languid conduct, 123 ; trade as- 
pect, 161 ; economic distress, 193 ; 
cost, 198. See also Army, Colo- 
xiies. Conciliation, Continental 



Congress, England, George III., 

Independence, Parliament, Peace 
of 1783, and battles, generals, and 
states by name. 
Revolution of 1689, effect in Mary- 
land, 5. 185-188; in England, 
6. 339; effect in Massachusetts, 
340-342. See also Leisler. 
Rhett, William, drives the French 
from before Charleston, 5. 343 J 
captures Bonnet, 430. 
Rhode Island, beginnings, 6. 141* 
146, 201; toleration, 186; dis- 
liked, 188 ; political effect of tol- 
eration, 189; refused admission 
to New England Confederacy, 
190 ; parliamentary charter, 190 ; 
trouble with Gorton, 201-205 ; 
upholds religious liberty and Qua- 
kers, 234-236 ; royal charter, 
249 ; charter rescinded, 335 5 're- 
scission void, 342; letters of 
marque against the Dutch, 7. 
307 ; deprives Catholics of the 



franchise, 8. 115, ^2. . 
share in Louisburg expedition, Q. 
251 ; troops for campaign of 
1759, 343; Gaspee episode, lO. 
90-92 ; instructions on independ- 
ence, 213; old charter its first 
state government, 213; adopts 
gradual emancipation and negro 
suffrage, 12. 88 ; franchises Cath- 
olics, 91 ; commercial and finan- 
cial distress, 204 ; paper-money 
troubles, 206-210 ; sympathy with 
Shays's Rebellion, 218; not re- 
presented in the Federal Conven- 
tion, 263 ; tardy ratification of 
the Constitution, 413. See also 
Colonies, New England, New- 
port. 
Ribaut, Jean, leads Huguenot colony 
in Florida, 3. 34^ 5 arrives with 
reinforcements, 346 ; plan to at- 
tack Spaniards foiled by storm, 
347 ; surrender and massacre, 

348-350- 
Ricahecrian Indians, 5. 0$ n. 



519 



GENERAL INDEX 



Rice, cultivation in North Carolina, 
5. 366 5 in South Carolina, 380- 
382 ; export of, and the pirates, 
424. 

Richmond, Duke of, denounces co- 
ercion of Massachusetts, 10. 118 ; 
condemns hiring of German 
troops, 190 ; moves for peace, 1 1. 
19, 20 5 in Rockingham minis- 
try, 348, 12. 6 ; approves of the 
Revolution, 2 5 in Shelburne min- 
istry, 19. 

Richmond, Va., population in 1790, 
5. 245 5 site selected, 300. 

Ridgefield, Conn., battle, lO. 304. 

Riedesel, Baron von, commands 
Brunswick troops in British army, 
10. 189; in Burgoyne's cam- 
paign, 3145 at Hubbardton, 316. 

Riedesel, Baroness von, on hardships 
at Saratoga, 10. 390 5 on Schuy- 
ler's kindness, 395-397. 

Ringmann, Matthias, called Phile- 
sius Vogesigena, edition of Alun- 
dus Novus, 2. 343 5 at Saint Die, 
362 ; plan for a Ptolemy, 363 ; 
death, 370. 

Ringrose, Basil, buccaneer, 5. 418. 

Rio de Janeiro, named, 2. 330. 

Rios, Pedro de los, governor of Da- 
rien, and Pizarro, 3. 208-210. 

Rittenhouse, David, astronomer, 2. 
376. 

River-drift men in Europe, i. 15, 

Rivers, influence on Virginia society, 
4. 263, 5. 239. 

Roads, Aztec, I. 134; Peruvian, 
3. 131-133. See also Travel. 

Roanoke Island, N. C, Raleigh's 
colony, 4. 41, 44-46. 

Robertson, James, pioneer in Ten- 
nessee, II. 1 24 ; defeats Chero- 
kees, 124, 125 ; founds Nash- 
ville, 129. 

Roberval, Jean Fran9ois, Sieur de, 
his New World titles, g. 22, 28 5 
arrives in Canada, 24 5 to found a 
colony, 29 J and his niece, 30 ; 



failure of the colony, 31 5 death, 
32. 

Robinson, John, organizes Scrooby 
congregation, 6. 85 ; character 
and influence, 85 ; in Holland, 
87, 88 ; stays there, 98. 

Robinson, John, commissioner of 
customs, assaults Otis, 10. 76. 

Robinson, William, Quaker, exe- 
cuted, 6. 238. 

Rochambeau, Count de, lands witt 
French troops, ll. 245 ; confer- 
ence with Washington, 328 j 
joins Washington's army, 332 ; 
picture at Versailles, 342 j departs 
for France, 12. 60. 

Roche, Marquis de la, voyage to 
Canada, 9. 35 

Rockingham, Marquis of, prime 
minister, 10. 29, 11. 348, 12. 

6 5 leads Old WhigS; 10. 48 ; 
protests coercion of Massachusetts, 
118 5 favours independence, II. 

7 5 denounces war of desolation, 
285 and the king, 12. 4, 65 
measures, 7 5 opposes parliamen- 
tary reform, 7 ; death, 18. 

Rocky Mount, S. C, battle, li. 
223. 

Rocky Mountains, discovery, 3. 374. 

Rodney, Sir George, character, II. 
168 5 at Cape St. Vincent, 169 5 
provisions Gibraltar, 169 ; in West 
Indies, 169; captures St. Eusta- 
tius, 1 94 ; defeats Grasse, 346, 
12. 16. 

Roldan, chief justice in Hispaniola, 
revolts, 2. 189 ; death, 202. 

Rolfe, John, marries Pocahontas, 4. 
199 ; first to cultivate tobacco, 
208. 

Roman Catholicism, power increased 
by Crusades, i. 314 ; papal tem- 
poral power and the Donation of 
Constantine, 2. 143 0.-147 n, ; 
Marj'land an asylum for, 4. 3165 
first mass in English America, 3 2 1 ; 
deprived of franchise by Puritans 
in Maryland, 370 j ruling power 

20 



GENERAL INDEX 



In Maryland, 5. 174 5 general 
fear of, in the colonies, 185, 8. 
210-2145 Maryland laws against, 

' 5. 188, 192-194 ; continued in- 
fluence in Maryland, 196, 313 ; 
private worship allowed, 197 5 
lender the restored palatinate, i 97- 
199 ; scheme for colony in Mis- 
sissippi valley, 198 ; number in 
Maryland, 3135 relation to the 
struggle for control in America, 
440 ; significance of date, 476, 6. 
3 5 preserves the imperial idea, 
20-22 5 apogee, 22 ; political de- 
cline, 40: compared with Protest- 
antism, 44 5 other colonial mea- 
sures against, 8. 247, 337, 349, 
421, 12. 89 n., 90; and Quak- 
ers in England, 8. 343 ; first 
church in New England, 12. 1035 
strength in America in 1784, 
103 ; first American bishop, 104. 
See also Protestantism, and popes 
by name. 

Roman Empire, date of end, 6. 1-6, 
57 ; importance of imperial ij^a, 
2, 5, 6, 21, 405 considered in- 
destructible, 3 ; reunited, 4 ; re- 
divided, 4. See also Holy Roman 
Empire, Nation-making. 

Rotch, Francis, and the tea ships, 
10. 101-107. 

Roundheads. See Puritans. 

Rousby, Christopher, revenue col- 
lector in Maryland, and Talbot, 5. 
183. 

Rowe, John, suggests destruction of 
the tea, 10. 106. 

Rowlandson, Mary, narrative of In- 
dian captivity, 6. 291-294. 

Royal Americans in Forbes' s army, 

9- 337- 

Royal commissioners of Charles II. , 
capture New Amsterdam, 6. 249, 
7- 33°) 33^~33^ 5 baffled by 
Massachusetts, 6. 249, 318, 7. 
331, 8. 8-11. 

Rubruquis, Willem de, Franciscan 
monk, mission to Great Khan, i . 



3205 increases geographical know- 
ledge, 321. 

Ruiz, Bartholomew, in Pizarro'a 
second expedition, 3. 207 5 re- 
mains at Gallo Island, 209 n. 

Ruiz, Sancho, in Columbus's first 
expedition, 2. 103. 

Rush, Benjamin, anonymous letter 
on Washington, 11. 44. 

Russell, John, gentleman pioneer in 
Virginia, 4. 142. 

Rut, John, English navigator, voy- 
age, 2. 231, 237 n. 

Rutgers 'v. Waddington, 12. 147, 

150-153- 
Rutherford, Griffith, defeats Chero- 

kees, II. 124. 
Rutledge, John, member of the 

Federal Convention, 12. 270. 

Sable Island, attempted colony, g. 6. 

Sachem, civil Indian executive, of 
clan, I. 82, 83 ; in Iroquois con- 
federacy, 89 ; among pueblo In- 
dians, 103 ; of Aztec clan, 122 ; 
Aztec tribal, 125. See also Chief. 

Sacs, Algonquin Indians, I. 51. 

Sacsahuaman hill, near Cuzco, Peru, 
fortress, 3. 104-111, 168. 

Saga of Vinland, versions, I. 229- 
234, 239 n. ; corroborated by 
other Icelandic documents, 234— 
244 ; a history, 245-247. 

Sagas, classification, i. 224, 227— 
229. 

Saguenay River, Canada, Roberval 
explores, 9. 31 . 

St. Augustine, Florida, founded, 3. 
346 ; American expedition against, 
II. 202. See also Florida. 

St. Brandan, mythical island, on 
Toscanelli map, 2. 50 n. ; on 
Lok map, 3. 356. 

St. Clair, Arthur, evacuates Ticon- 
deroga, 10. 3155 responsibility, 
318; governor of Northwest Terri- 
tory, 12. 244. 

Saint-Die, France, college and town. 
2. 360 J scholars at, 361. 

21 



GENERAL INDEX 



St.Eustatius, Dutch West Indian 
island, innportance, II. 1875 cap- 
tured by British, 1 94 5 recaptured, 
346. 

St. John's, Canada, captured by 
Americans, 10. 154, 194; re- 
captured, 154. 

St. Lawrence Gulf and River, Car- 
tier in, 3. 325, g. 14; on Dee 
"^^P> 3- 35^ 5 Aubert's alleged 
voyage, 7. 68, g. 4 5 naming of, 
7. 68, 69 ; impressiveness, g. 
1 5 5 notion of union with the 
Hudson, 27. 

St. Leger, Barry, part assigned in 
Burgoyne's campaign, 10. 307 5 
army, 3 34 ; besieges Fort Stan- 
wix, 335 ; effect of Oriskany, 
343 ; flight, 346. 

St. Louis on the Illinois River, 
founded, g. 131. 

St. Lusson, Sieur de, takes posses- 
sion of the Northwest for France, 
g. 107-109. 

St. Mary's, Md., founded, 4. 321 ; 
captured by Ingle, 360 5 capital 
taken from, 5. 188 ; decay, 189. 
See also Maryland. 

Saint-Pierre, Legardeur de, expedi- 
tion to Ohio valley, g. 269 ; with 
Dieskau, 298 5 killed, 299. 

Saint-Simon, Marquis de, joins La- 
fayette before Yorktown, 11. 
336. 

Salaries, colonial controversies over, 
5. 321, 8. 279, 10. 4, 15, 92, 

93, 97- 

Salem, Mass., settled, 6. 112; 
named, 116; Episcopal service 
prevented, 131 ; Roger Williams 
at, 1 39-141 5 seat of govern- 
ment, 10. 113. See also Salem 
Village. 

Salem, N. J., founded, 8. 163. 

Salem Village (Dan vers), Mass., 
Cotton Mather's connection with 
the witchcraft delusion, g. 150- 
152, 155, 170-173, 186, 1975 
bibliography of the witchcraft, 

5^ 



151 n.; situation, 1 57; church 

troubles, 157-1595 beginnings of 
the witchcraft troubles, i 59-1 61 j 
persons accused, 1 61-169, ^^4j 
malice as an element in the accu- 
sations, 165, 167-169, 180- 
191, 195 5 special court, 169 ; 
recommendations of the ministers, 
170-172 5 convictions on spectral 
evidence, 1735 trials, 174-180; 
executions, 179, 180, 186 ; pro- 
testations of innocence, 180- 
183; reaction, 183-185 ; special 
court abolished, 1865 confessions 
of miscarriage of justice, 188 5 ex- 
planation of the delusion, 189- 
195 ; historical importance of 
the troubles, 195 ; reaction on 
the clergy, 197. See also Witch- 
craft. 

Salisbury, Earl of. See Cecil. 

Salomon, Haym, financial aid during 
the Revolution, 8. 392. 

Saltonstall, Sir Richard, on religious 
persecution, 6. 224. 

*'Sam Adams regiments," lO. 82. 

Samoset, Indian, friendly with Pil- 
grims, 6. 102. 

San Domingo, Hayti Island, founded, 
2. 176. 

San Juan de Ulloa, Mexico, Grijalva 
at, 3- 35; Cortes at, 37; Haw- 
kins's fight, 4. 22-24. 

San Salvador Island, Columbus's 
landfall, 2. 115 5 identity, 115. 

Sanchez, Gabriel (Raphael), Co- 
lumbus's letter to, published, 2. 

135- 

Sanctuary, Aztec right, I. 140 n. 

Sandys, Sir Edwin, member of the 
London Company, career, 4. 81 ; 
leader in party opposed to king's 
pretensions, 216, 2365 treasurer, 
217 ; bestows representation on 
Virginia, 219, 221 ; election op- 
posed by the king, 2375 with- 
draws, 238 ; prepares answer to 
charges against the company, 2525 
assists Pilgrims, 276, 6. 96 j in- 

2 



GENERAL INDEX 



terest in education in Virginia, 4. 
276. 

Sandys, George, in Virginia, 4. 273 5 
on Pott, 295. 

Santangei, Luis de, interest in Colum- 
bus, 2. 95, 99 ; Columbus's let- 
ter to, 128. 

Santarem, Joao de, Portuguese navi- 
gator, crosses equator, 2. 375. 

Saracen Empire, barrier between Eu- 
rope and Asia, i. 310. 

Saratoga, N. Y., Burgoyne retreats 
to, g. 389 J surrender at, 394, 
395. &e a/so Burgoyne. 

Sargasso Sea, Columbus in, 2. 107 5 
situation, 107 n.-i09 n. 5 and 
Atlantis, 108 n. 

Sargent, Winthrop, and the Ohio 
Company, 12. 241. 

Sataspes, voyage on west coast of 
Africa, i. 347. 

Savagery and barbarism, i. 29-31 ; 
three periods, 31, 32; unknown 
to mediaeval Europeans, 213, 
375 n., 377 n. ; history of the 
word, 376 n. ; knowledge of the 
ancients concerning, 377 n. 

Savannah, Ga., surrender to British, 
II. 2025 French- American at- 
tack, 211. 

Say-and-Sele, Lord, grant in Connec- 
ticut, 6. 150, 7. 176. 

Saybrook, Conn., fort built, 6. 150, 

7- 177- 
Saybrook Platform, 9. 215-218. 
Sayle, William, first governor in 

South Carolina, 5. 324. 
Sayri Tupac, Inca, pensioner of 

Spain, 3. 245. 
Schaats, Gideon, minister at Albany, 

8. 100. 
Schenectady, N. Y., settled, 8. 63 ; 

meaning of the name, 64 n. 5 

massacre, 224-227. 
Schoner, Johann, America on his 

globes, 2. 3 So 5 confuses facts on 



his globes, 425 ; identifies North 
America with Asia, 45 1 . 



Schools. See Education. 

Schout, duties of the office in the 
New Netherland government, 7- 
152. 

Schuyler, Peter, and the Iroquois, 
8. 66, 248, g. 103, 263 5 de- 
feats Frontenac, 8. 250 ; takes 
Iroquois chiefs to England, 282 j 
manor, 311-317; protest against 
Leisler, 420. 

Schuyler, Philip, commands northern 
department, 10. 178, 1945 char- 
acter, 297 5 hated by his New 
England army, 297, 3445 Gates's 
intrigue against, 300, 301 ; blame 
for failure of invasion of Canada, 
300 ; blame for loss of Ticonde- 
roga, 318, 319 ; evacuates Fort 
Edward, 320 5 removed from com- 
mand, 347 5 house burnt by Brit- 
ish, 389} magnanimity, 395- 
397 ; friendship for Arnold, ll, 
260. 

Scotch loyalists, in North Carolina, 
10. 207 ; on the frontier, 1 1. 
104 ; in South Carolina, 200. 

Scotch-Irish, in North Carolina, 5. 
373 j influence on American 
progress, 456, 460, 462, 463, 8. 
414 5 origin, 5. 457-459, 8. 
411 5 reasons for migrating, 5. 
459, 8. 412 ; frontier settlements, 
5. 460-462, 8. 413, g. 259} 
prominent descendants, 5. 460, 
461 5 objectionable name, 8. 410 ; 
religious toleration, 413, 12. 96 ; 
union with the Palatines, 8. 414 ; 
Whigs, II. 200. 

Scotland, power of the church, 6. 
82 ; compared with New England, 
183-185 5 witchcraft trials, g. 
142, 143. 

Scott, John, adventurer, 7. 326 ; 
president of league of Long Island 
towns, 328 ; arrested, 329. 

Scrooby congregation, gathered, 6. 
85 ; escape to Holland, 86. See 
aho Pilgrims. 

Sea kings, English, of Elizabeth's 



sn 



GENERAL INDEX 



time, influence on America, 4. 
12 5 policy of development, 26— 
28, 5. 400 ; not buccaneers, 4. 
28, r, 399 5 Drake's achieve- 
ments), 4. 29-33, 38-41 5 defeat 
of the Armada, 41—44 ; final blow 
to Spain's naval power, 44 ; Pu- 
ritans, 6. 72. 

Seabury, Samuel, ordained as bishop, 
12. 100. 

Seal of Virginia, 5. 25-27. 

Sedgwick, Robert, Massachusetts 
major, conquers Acadia, 9. 96. 

Seminole Indians, i. 50. 

Senate, state, origin and early char- 
acter, 12. 77, 79, 80. See also 
Legislature. 

Seneca, prophecy of discovery of 
America, 2. 43. 

Senecas, Iroquois Indians, i. 54, g. 
45 5 segregated from the Onon- 
dagas, 47. See also Iroquois. 

Separatists, polit}^, 6. 78 ; organized, 
79 ; opposed, 79 ; persecuted, 
80; effect of James I.'s threat, 
85 ; Massachusetts settlers be- 
come, 131. See also PUgrims, 
Scrooby congregation. 

Sepulveda, Juan de, controversy with 
Las Casas, 3. 306-308. 

Serapis, British ship, equipment, 11. 
153 ; battle with Bon Homme 
Richard, 154-159. 

Servants, white indented, demand for, 
in Virginia, 5. 205 5 convicts and 
kidnapped children sent to Amer- 
ica, 205 ; term of service and 
treatment, 206 ; notion that Vir- 
ginians are descended from con- 
victs, 207-210 ; redemprioners, 
211 ; character, number, and dis- 
tribution of transported convicts, 
211— 2145 protests against trans- 
portation of convicts, 213, 220; 
transported political offenders, 214 ; 
career of white freedmen and their 
descendants, 216-220, 369-371, 
373-376; taxation, 226; as tutoi-s, 
2895 in New England, 6. 172 ; 



attempt to introduce by patroons, 
7. 197; in New York, 8. 333; 
Dunmore attempts to enlist, 10. 
210. See also Slavery. 

Setebos, Patagonian deity, 2. 437. 

Seven Years' War, early grounds, 
6. 343 5 beginning, g. 301. Set 
also French and Indian War. 

Severn River, Md., battle in 1655, 

4. 371. 

Sevier, John, defeats Cherokees, 1 1. 
1245 at King's Mountain, 295, 
297 5 governor of the state of 
Franklin, 12. 237 ; governor of 
Tennessee, 239. 

Sewall, Samuel, judge of Salem 
witches, g. 170 ; public acknow- 
ledgment of error, 188. 

Seymour, Sii Edward, on Virginia's 
desire for a college, 5. 136. 

Seymour, John, governor of Mary- 
land, reprimands Catholic priests, 

5. 192. 

Shaftesbury, Earl of. See Cooper. 

Sharpe, Horatio, governor of Mary- 
land, 5. 200 ; advises tax on col- 
onies, 10. 14. 

Sharpless, Edward, clerk of House 
of Burgesses punished, 4. 287. 

Shattuck, Job, leader in Shays's Re- 
bellion, 12. 2135 captured, 214. 

Shawnee Indians in Ohio valley, i. 
51, g. 263; mound-builders, I. 
166, 168 ; English allies, g. 

357. 

Shawomet, R. I., Gorton's settle- 
ment, 6. 204 ; expedition against, 
210 ; new settlement, 212. 

Shays, Daniel, at Springfield, 12. 
214, 215; retreat and capture, 
215-217. 

Shays's Rebellion, causes, 12. 210- 
213 ; outbreak, 213-215 ; sup- 
pression, 215-217 ; pardon of 
insurgents, 218 ; attitude of Con- 
gress, 219, 220. 

Sheffield, Lord, pamphlet 0.1 Amer- 
ican trade, 12. 190. 

Shelburne, Earl of, colonial policy. 



524 



GENERAL INDEX 



10. 31, II. 26 ; in Grafton min- 
istry, 10. 33 ; in Rockingham 
ministry, 11. 348, 12. 6 5 char- 
acter, 5 ; and Fox, 6, 9, 13, 
16-18 ; favours parliamentary re- 
form, 7 ; begins informal peace 
negotiations, 10 ; on Franklin's 
peace suggestions, 12-14, I7j 
ministry, 19 j his negotiations 
denounced, 50 5 resigns, 51 j jus- 
tified, 53. 

Shelby, Isaac, pioneer, defeats Indi- 
ans, 10. 129; at King's Moun- 
tain, 295, 296. 

Shenandoah Valley, Va., Spots- 
wood's expedition to, 5. 450 j 
settlement, 461. 

Sheriffs, duties and appointment in 
Maryland, 4. 330, 5. 178; and 
in Virginia, 47, 82. 

Sherman, Roger, on committee to 
draft Declaration of Independence, 
10. 227 ; member of the Federal 
Convention, 12. 271 5 suggests 
compromise on representation in 
Congress, 297 ; pregnant sugges- 
tions on the executive, 329. 

Sherwood, William, career, 5. 
1 19 n. 

Ship-building, in New Netherland, 
7. 163 ; cost in New England, 
12. 163. 

Shippen, Margaret, betrothed to 
Arnold, 11. 250 5 marriage, 255 ; 
ignorant of Arnold's treason, 2565 
devotion, 284, 

Ships, viking, i. 198-201 ; clumsi- 
ness of caravels, 359. 

Shirley, William, governor of Mas- 
sachusetts, project to attack Louis- 
burg, g. 250 ; and his assembly, 
278, 294 5 suggests a stamp tax and 
consolidation, 281, 10. 13, 185 
part in the first campaign of French 
and Indian War, g. 294 5 failure 
of expedition against Fort Niagara, 
300 5 superseded as commander- 
m-chief, 306. 

ShoshoneSj Indian group, i. 47. 



Shute, Samuel, governor of Massa- 
chusetts, conference with the 
Maine Indians, g. 239 ; conflict 
with the assembly, 242 ; sails 
suddenly for England, 242. 

Silk, attempted culture in Virginia, 

.4- 271, 5- 3- 

Sinclair, Henry, Earl of Orkneys, 
and Nicolo Zeno, i. 264; voyage 
of discovery, 265 ; the Zichmni 
of Zeno narrative, 274. 

Sioux Indians, i. 48, 5. 349. 

Six Nations, i^ee Iroquois. 

Slavery, in Mexican tribes, I. 139; 
beginning of modern, 372, 3. 
247, 249-251 ; religious motive, 
I. 372, 3. 250, 4. 18; ancient, 
3. 247-249, 6. II, 16; influ- 
ence of discovery of America, 3. 
253- . 

Indian : Vespucius enslaves 
Bermuda natives, 2. 280 ; oppo- 
sition to the New Laws in Peru, 
3. 237, 238 5 beginnings, 253- 
255 ; origin of repartimientos, 
255 ; royal Spanish orders for 
forced labour and conversion, 264 ; 
encomiendas, 265 5 effect of the 
discovery of gold, 266 ; horrors, 
267-269; Dominicans denounce, 
270-272 ; Las Casas begins his 
labours against, 274-276 ; Ximi- 
nes's attitude, 277 ; first at- 
tempted reforms, 277 ; Las Casas 
renews attempt to abolish, 289 ; 
pope forbids further enslavement, 
301 ; New Laws, 301 ; gradual 
and final abolition, 302, 308 ; 
policy of abolition, 302 n. ; kid- 
napping in South Carolina, 5. 
338, 341 5 New England Indians 
sold, 6. 299. 

Negro : conditions of early, in 
Europe, 3. 251, 252 n. ; Las 
Casas and its introduction in Amer- 
ica, 278-284 ; early English slave 
trade, 4. 18, 19 ; negroes con- 
sidered not human, 18, 5. 223- 
introduction in Virginia, 4. 221 j 



525 



GENERAL INDEX 



number of Virginia slaves in 1649, 
5. 2 5 and in 1670, 7 ; and in 
1750, 222 ; effect on Maryland 
manors, 172; English monopoly 
of slave trade, 221 ; anti-slavery 
sentiment in Virginia, 222, 234, 
12. 85 ; its decay, 5. 223, 12. 

86 5 question of baptism, 5. 225 ; 
property in slaves, 225 ; taxation 
in Virginia, 226 j treatment of 
slaves in Virginia, 226-228, 10. 
210 5 fear of insurrections, 5. 
228 5 Virginia laws, 229-232 • 
in England, 232-234 ; immoral- 
ity, 235-237 ; plantation negro 
quarters, 256 ; treatment in North 
Carolina, 367 5 characteristics in 
South Carolina, 381-387, 11. 
200, 203 ; number in North and 
South Carolina in 1760, 5. 384 ; 
insurrection in South Carolina, 
385 ; in Georgia, 392, 393 ; in 
New England, 6. 172; Quaker 
condemnation, 8. 127, 380; in 
colonial New York, 334-336 5 
negro plot of 1 712, 336; and of 
1 741, 336-342 ; in colonial 
Pennsylvania, 380; Dunmore at- 
tempts to enlist slaves, 10. 210 ; 
plan to arm slaves, li. 206 5 
English opinion before 1800, 12. 

84 ; and the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, 85 5 conditions in 1776, 

85 ; effect of cotton, 86, 316 ; 
early state laws against slave trade, 

87 ; measures for gradual emanci- 
pation, 87 ; immediate emancipa- 
tion in Massachusetts, 88 j Jeffer- 
son's policy of restricting, 232, 
234-236 ; forbidden in North- 
west Territory, 235, 243 5 begin- 
ning of national questions, 304 ; 
compromise in the Constitution 
on slave representation, 305- 
309 ; effect of the compromise, 
309-311 ; compromise on slave 
trade, 31 1-3 13 ; believed mori- 
bund in 1787, 314. See also 
Servants. 



Slechtenhorst, Brandt van,^ governs 
Rensselaerwyck, 7. 246 ; insub- 
ordination, 247-249. 

Sloughter, Henry, governor of New 
York, 8. 230 ; arrival, 236 ; 
and Leisler, 236-239, 424 ; 
death, 247. 

Sluyter, Peter, in Maryland, 5. 165 ; 
in New York, 8. 71, 85-101. 

Smallwood, William, American gen- 
eral, at Long Island, 10. 244 5 at 
Germantown, 375, 376. 

Smith, Adam, on colonial represen- 
tation in Parliament, 10. 40 ; on 
colonial trade, 11. 6. 

Smith, Francis, British colonel, at 
Concord, 10. 142. 

Smith, Captain John, genius for ad- 
ventures, 4. 94 ; early life, 96 ; 
on the Mediterranean, 97 5 ad- 
ventures with Turks, 98-103 ; 
character, 103, 106 ; enslaved, 
103-105 J escape, 105 ; goes to 
Virginia, 1065 accused of plotting 
mutiny, 107 ; councillor, 108 ; 
explores the James, no 5 ac- 
quitted, 112; quarrel with Wing- 
field, 115— 1 17 5 capture and res- 
cue by Pocahontas, 118— 131; 
president of the colony, 132; map 
of Virginia, 1385 as leader of the 
colony, 142, 167, 171 5 answer 
to company's complaints, 147- 
1 5 1 5 coerces the Indians and ob- 
tains supplies, 154-1665 wounded 
and returns to England, 178 j 
service to Virginia, 185, 187 ; 
coasts and names New England, 
203, 6. 93, 7. 131 5 and Poca- 
hontas in England, 4. 203 ; later 
life, 272, 6. 94 5 disparages New 
England, 94 ; influence on Hud- 
son, 7. lOI. 

Smith, Jonathan, speech in Massa- 
chusetts ratifying convention, 12. 
388-391. 

Smith, Joshua, connection with 
Arnold's treason, ii. 262, 265 
266. 



526 



GENERAL INDEX 



Smith, Melancton, opposes the Con- 
stitution, 12. 408 J converted, 
412. 

Smith, Sir Thomas, treasurer of 
London Company, 4. 78, 211, 
216 ; quarrel with Warwick, 
2175 displaced by Sandys, 217; 
heads opposition, 242. 

Smith, Thomas, Claiborne's lieuten- 
ant, 4. 3435 hanged, 352. 

Smith, William, lawyer, Zenger's 
counsel, 8. 291 ; disbarred, 292. 

Smith, William, historian, on New 
York education, 8. 332; History 
of New York, 332. 

Smuggling, in Spanish colonies, 4. 
404 5 thrives under trade restric- 
tions, 12. 160. See aha Naviga- 
tion Acts. 

Smyth, J. F., libel on planter's life, 
5. 268-270. 

Snorro Sturleson, wealth, i. 178 n. 5 
Heimskringluy I 79. 

Snorro, son of Thoriinn, born in 
Vinland, i. 193. 

Social conditions, in England under 
Elizabeth, 4. 53-575 early Vir- 
ginia laws, 289—294 5 Puritans 
and Cavaliers compared, 5. 1 1- 
1 5 5 no class distinctions in Eng- 
land, 15-18 J reasons for differ- 
ence between New England and 
Virginia, 34 ; in New England 
37, 6. 1 71-174, 8. 3o8_5_ in 
Virginia, 5. 202-312; Virginia 
classes, 237 5 in Maryland, 312 ; 
in North Carolina, 326, 361, 
363-373, 388 j in South Caro- 
lina, 361, 376-3895 in Georgia, 
392 ; in the mediaeval Nether- 
lands, 7. £3 ; in New Netherland, 
189-191, 196, 267, 303 5 in 
New York, 8. 53, 73-106, 308- 
3425 in Pennsylvania, 357, 
375-383. See also Poor whites. 
Servants, Slavery. 

Socialism in Peru, 3. 165. 

Society, change in idea of primitive, 
I. 64 n. J change from gentile to 



political basis, 112— 114. See also 
Clan, Culture, Government. 

Solis, Juan Diaz de, pilot major, 2. 
250, 412; voyage to Mexican 
coast, 283-293 5 voyage to South 
America, 412 5 last voyage and 
death, 412. 

Somers, Sir George, in the London 
Company, 4. 77 5 voyage to Vir- 
ginia, 174-177, 181 ; death, 
190. 

Sons of Liberty, object, 10. 27. 

Sosa, Lope de, to supersede Pedrarias, 
3. 201 ; death, 202. 

Sothel, Seth, governor of North 
Carolina, 5. 333 ; banished, 3345 
in Charleston, 337; death, 338. 

Soto, Fernando de, with Cordova in 
Central America, 3. 205 5 with 
Pizarro in Peru, 214, 216; de- 
nounces execution of Atahualpa, 
222 5 governor of Cuba, 339 j 
expedition on the mainland, 339- 
341 ; death, 340 ; explorations 
unknown to La Salle, 9. 1 21. 

South America, Columbus's specula- 
tions on, 2. 186-188,198; early 
cartography, 349, 350, 354, 371', 
3?i ; extension of name America 
to whole of, 382 ; Portuguese 
attempts to circumnavigate, 401- 
407, 409, 412, 413 ; native 
groups, 3. 95, 96. See also 
America, Brazil, Peru. 

South Carolina, settlement, 5. 324 ; 
West governor, 335 ; early politi- 
cal troubles, 335, 337; relations 
with the Spanish, 336, 341—343, 
357, 359, 390; executive union 
with North Carolina, 339 ; pro- 
gress under Archdale and Blake, 

340 ; triumph of the Dissenters, 

341 ; assists North Carolina against 
the Tuscaroras, 354 ; Indian 
war, 356-358 ; overthrow of 
the proprietary, 358 ; social con- 
ditions, 361, 387-389, 394; 
character of settlers, 376, 8. 392 j 
religious conditions, 5. 377, S2c 



527 



GENERAL INDEX 



92; local government, 5. 3785 
education, 379; industries, 380- 
382, 424 5 slavery, 382-387 ; 
slave insurrection, 385 5 and the 
pirates, 421-425, 427-431 ; 
troops for campaign of 1759, 9. 
343 ; state government, 10. 209 j 
instructions on independence, 209 ; 
suffering during the Revolution, 
236 5 conditions in 1779, II. 
199-201 ; offers to remain neu- 
tral, 207-209 5 overrun by Brit- 
ish, 2165 Clinton's allegiance 
proclamations, 217, 218 ; disor- 
ders, 219 ; strategic points, 220 ; 
partisan warfare, 220, 223, 235 5 
paper money, 12. 201 ; influence 
in the Federal Convention, 308 ; 
contest over ratifying the Consti- 
tution, 397-400. See also Caro- 
lina, Charleston, Colonies, Corn- 
wallis, Greene (Nathanael), and 
battles by name. 

South Georgia Island, discovered, 
2. 332. 

South Shetland, discovered, 7. 65. 

Southampton, Earl of, interest in 
colonization, 4. 65 5 leads coun- 
try party in London Company, 
216,237; elected treasurer, 239; 
imprisoned, 245 5 preserves copy 
of company's records, 260 ; death, 
260. 

Southampton, L. I., settled, 7. 204. 

Southhold, L. I., added to New 
Haven, 6. 165 ; settled, 7. 204. 

Sovereignty, priority of state and 
national, 12. 107-109; under 
Articles of Confederation, 114- 
116. 

Spaniards, bring domestic animals to 
America, I. 32 ; cruelty compared 
with Indian, 59 n., 3. 90; mis- 
conception of Indian society, I. 
Ill; Morgan's rules on their 
narratives, 143, 144 ; fairer criti- 
cism, 144-149 ; religious motive 
in explorations and conquests, 366, 



2- 443» 3- 89, 291, 306, 3o8- 

See also Slavery (Indian), Spain. 
Spain, claim to Canary Islands, i. 
370; war of Castile with Portu- 
gal, 2. 56 ; war and surrender of 
Granada, 79, 96 ; papal grant of 
the Indies, 141 ; bull of demar- 
cavion, 142-148 ; treaty of Tor- 
desillas, 148 ; department of In- 
dian affairs, 148-150 ; grants 
right of private voyages, 178 ; re- 
monstrance against Cabot's voy- 
age, 217 ; progress of discovery in 
America, 3. 29 ; controversy with 
Portugal over East Indies, 318; 
zenith of power, 388 ; cessation 
of colonial activity, 389, 7. 112; 
effect of Moorish war, 3. 390- 
392 ; religious persecutions, 393, 
399-403, 4- 9, 6. 48, 7. 49, 8. 
386-388 ; effect of destruction 
of Armada, 3. 394, 4. 46, 5. 
440, 6. 72 ; seizes Portugal, 3. 
395, 7. 57; rebellion and expul- 
sion of the Moriscoes, 3. 396 ; 
effect of expulsion, 397 ; charac- 
ter of American colonies, 4. 6, 
29 ; use and results of American 
wealth, 7-1 1 ; struggle with 
Elizabethan England, 11-13, 22- 

3i» 39-44, 46, 51, 70,5- 401- 
403 ; and the English colonies, 
4. 70, 90, 228, 5. 315, 336, 

341-343, 357» 359, 390, 392, 
441 ; influence over James I., 4. 
229-231, 233-235, 256; treaty 
of America, 5. 413 ; family alli- 
ance with France, 421 ; Moors 
in, 6. 12 ; quick development of 
despotism, 43 ; control in the 
Netherlands, 7. 32, 49, 50 ; 
relations with America, France, 
and England in 1779, II. 161- 
166; war with England, 166; 
attempted invasion of England, 
1 67 ; attitude toward rights of 
neutrals, 172, 173, 1 8 1, 182; 
and the peace of 1783, 12. 20, 



528 



GENERAL INDEX 



2Z, 42 ; and the navigation of 
the Mississippi, 246-249. See 
also Spaniarcs. 

Spelman, Henry, rescued by Poca- 
hontas, 4. 199 n. 

Spencer, Joseph, American general, 
at siege of Boston, 10. 177. 

Spencer, Nicholas, suffers at Bacon's 
hands, 4. 93, 104. 

Spitzbergen, discovered, 3. 378, 7. 
68. 

Sports. See Recreations. 

Spotswood, Alexander, governor of 
Virginia, and the assembly, 5. 
354,433-439,442-445; ances- 
try and career, 432 ; character, 
434 5 administrative energy, 4'^4 5 
prescience of colonial community 
of interests, 442 ; expedition to 
the Shenandoah valley, 449-452 5 
on dangers from Canada, 452- 
454 5 quarrels with Blair and is 
removed, 454 5 postmaster-gen- 
eral, 455 5 last years, 455. 

Springfield, Mass., settled, 6. 1545 
attacked by Indians, 278, 294. 

Stadacona (Quebec), Cartier at, g. 
15-17, 20 ; destroyed, 42. 

Stamford, Conn., settled, 6. 165. 

Stamp Act, causes, 5. 354 n., 445- 
447, 8. 255, 257, 9. 243, 273, 
281 ; recommended, 10. 13 ; 
declaratory resolves, 18 ; colonial 
objections, 19 ; passed, 20 j re- 
ception in America, 21, 23, 26 5 
Congress, 24 ; riots, 26-30 ; de- 
bate on repeal, 29—31 j reception 
of repeal, 3 1 . 

Standish, Miles, sails with Pilgrims, 
6. 98 ; disperses Merrjmount 
settlers, in. 

Stark, John, ancestry, 5. 460 ; in 
Johnson's army, g. 296 ; in 
American army, 10. 149 ; at 
Bunker Hill, 163 5 character, 
175 ; slighted by Congress, 330 ; 
at Bennington, 330-333 5 briga- 
dier-general, 334. 

Staten Island, N. Y., settled, 7. 



199, 207, 8. 397; adjudged to 
New York, 43. 

States, loyalty to, 12. 74; early gov- 
ernments, 75-82 5 sovereignty, 
107—109, 1 14-1 165 admission of 
new, 320 ; prohibitions under the 
Constitution, 323. See also Col- 
onies, Union, United States, and 
states by name. 

Stephen, Adam, blunder at German- 
town, 10. 377; cashiered, 378. 

Stephens, Samuel, governor ofNorth 
Carolina, 5. 326. 

Steuben, Baron Friedrich von, career, 
II. 59; sent to America, 60; 
reception, 61 ; settles, 62 ; trains 
the army, 62-64 ; inspector-gen- 
eral, 64 5 manual of tactics, 65 ; 
recognizes value of American light 
infantry, 65 ; and Lee at Mon- 
mouth, 78 ; tries Andre, 275 ; 
in Virginia, 301 5 at Yorktown, 

34°- 

Stevens, Edward, American general, 
at Camden, 11. 229-231. 

Stevenson, Marmaduke, g'^aker, 
executed, 6. 238. 

Stewart, Lazarus, in Wyoming val- 
ley, II. 106. 

Stirling, Earl of, grant of Long 
Island, 7. 291. 

Stirling, Lord. aS^c Alexander (Wil- 
liam ) . 

Stith, William, president of William 
and Mary College, History of Vir- 
ginia, 5. 298. 

Stoddard, Solomon, and the Halfway 
Covenant, g. 222. 

Stone, John, murdered by Pequots, 

7- 175- , 

Stone, William, governor of Marv- 
land, 4. 361 5 welcomes Puritans, 
365 ; and the Parliamentary com- 
missioners, 369, 370 5 defeated 
and captured by the Puritans, 
371- 

Stony Point, N. Y., British fortress, 
II. 133 ; storm.ed by Americans, 
134-136; evacuated, 137-139. 



529 



GENERAL INDEX 



Stormont, Lord, in coalition minis- 
try, 12. 53. 

Stoughton, William, apothegm on 
settlers of New England, 6. 174 ; 
judge of the Salem witches, 9. 
169. 

Strabo, on an encompassing ocean, 
I. 341 5 unknown to mediaeval 
Europe, 350; on the inhabitable 
world, 356 n. ; prophecy on 
America, 2. 44. 

Strachey, Henry, peace envoy, 12. 
26. 

Strong, Caleb, member of the Fed- 
eral Convention, 12. 270. 

Stuart, Charles, British colonel, com- 
mands in South Carolina, 11. 3195 
at Eutaw Springs, 320 ; retreat 
to Charleston, 320. 

Stuyvesant, Peter, and Baltimore, 
5. 162; director-general of New 
Netherland, 7. 225 ; arrival, 
229 ; autocracy, 230, 233-237, 
296 5 meaning of his name, 230; 
family, 231 5 character, 231, 275, 
341 ; difficulties, 240 ; and 
Rensselaerwyck, 247-249 ; and 
the popular demands, 250, 251, 
264, 296, 302, 310-313; man- 
damus, 25 1 5 religious persecutions, 
269—275 ; expedition against New 
Sweden, 281 ; and Stirling's 
agent, 291 5 relations with Con- 
necticut and New Haven, 292- 
301, 321, 326-328 5 and the 
English settlers, 297, 310, 313 ; 
accused of inciting the Indians 
against the English, 303-305 ; 
and the Indians, 316-318 ; and 
the surrender of New Amsterdam, 
332-338; vindicated, 339; last 
years, 340. 

Suffolk County Resolves, 10. 127. 

Suffrage, in Virginia, 5. 77, 82, 
1 1 6-1 18 ; negro, in Virginia, 232; 
in Maryland, 179, 198 5 in Mas- 
sachusetts, 6. 132, 150, 213, 311, 
323. 344, 9- 185, 197,202; in 



Connecticut, 6. 155; in New Ha- 
ven, 165, 1 87; Halfway Covenant, 
314, g. 200; under early state 
governments, 12. 82 ; negro, in 
New York, 88 ; in Northwest 
Territory, 232, 242. 
Sullivan, John, character, 10. 176 ; 
in Canada, 198 ; at Long Island, 
243 ; captured, 244 ; exchanged, 
254; at Brandywine, 367, 369; 
at Germantown, 374, 376 ; at- 
tack on Newport, 11. 91-96 ; 
expedition against Iroquois, iio- 

113- 

Sulpicians, expedition with La Salle, 
g. 111-114. 

Sumter, Thomas, partisan com- 
mander, II. 222; at Rocky 
Mount and Hanging Rock, 223 j 
operations, 234; at Fishing Creek, 
235; at Blackstock Hill, 299 j 
takes Orangeburg, 318 ; opposes 
the Constitution, 12. 400. 

Sun worship in Peru, 3. 145-154. 

Susquehannocks, Huron-Iroquois In- 
dians, I. 53 ; annihilated by the 
Five Nations and Bacon, 5. 67, 
89, 8. 192, g. 49 ; raids in Vir- 
ginia and Maryland, 5. 68, 71 ; 
envoys killed, 69-71 ; refuse to 
join the Five Nations, g. 48 ; 

Sweden, in Armed Neutrality, 11. 
182. See also New Sweden. 

Symes, Benjamin, school in Virginia, 
5. 6, 287. 

Szkolny, John, Polish pilot, voyage 
in northern seas, i. 292 n. 

Talavera, Fernando de, interest in 
Columbus, 2. 79, 95. 

Talbot, George, and the customs 
officer in Maryland, 5. 182-184. 

Talcott, John, exterminates Narra- 
gansetts, 6. 296. 

Tallegwi, identified with the Chero- 
kee Indians, i. 167. 

Tallmadge, Benjamin, connection 
with Andre's arrest, 2. 269, 274. 



530 



GENERAL INDEX 



Talon, Jean Baptiste, intendant of 
Canada, policy, 9. 102; recalled, 

Tar, colonial production, 4. I44) 

168, 5. 366. 
Tariff, protective, condemned, 5. 
5a, 58, 226,12. 159-161, 3125 
state acts, 169 ; failure of impost 
amendment to Articles of Confed- 
eration, 258-261. 
Tarleton, Banastre, before Charleston, 
II. 215 ; at Waxhaws, 216 ; at 
Camden, 231 5 at Fishing Creek, 
235; at Blackstock Hill, 299; 
sent against Morgan, 303 5 at 
Cowpens, 304-306 5 raids in Vir- 
ginia, 325, 327 n. 
Tarratine Indians, war, 5. 301. 
Tasmania, discovered, 7. 60. 
Taunton, Mass., and King Philip's 

War, 6. 270, 272,. 297. 
Taxation, tribute to Aztec confeder- 
acy, I. 119, 133 5 Peruvian, 3. 
164; conditions in Virginia, 5. 
42,46, 60, 83, 117, 122, 2265 
and representation, 1 25, 6. 37,127, 
10. 19, 235 Virginia's governor 
asks permission of the burgesses 
to levy a tax, 5. 133 ; proprietary 
export duty in Maryland, 154; 
parliamentary charter right to tax 
in Mar>'land and Pennsylvania, 
168, 8. 177 ; trouble over royal 
customs duties in Maryland, 5. 
182, 1845 church-rate in Mary- 
land, 188, 190 ; attempted impost 
in South Carolina, 3585 assessment 
of local, in South Carolina, 378 ; 
Virginia burgesses and the Post 
Office Act, 435 ; in New England 
Confederacy, 6. 190 ; in Massachu- 
setts under Andros, 338 5 Kieft 
attempts to tax the Indians, 7. 
207 ; excise in New Netherland, 
221, 222, 233, 302 ; Stuyve- 
sant's enforcement of the customs 
duties, 249 ; in reconquered New 
Netherland, 8. 35 5 customhouse 
mspections, 86-88 } trouble over 



customs duties in New York, 195, 
196 5 heavy, in New York, 304; 
declaration of parliamentary right 
to tax colonies, lO. 31 ; parlia- 
mentary right of external taxation 
of colonies, 34 ; self-, only solu- 
tion of colonial problem, 41 5 un- 
popular in the Revolution, II. 
2385 control under Articles of Con- 
federation, 12. 116 ; right to levy 
imposts refused to Congress, 124, 
128. See also Stamp Act, Tea, 
Townshend Acts. 
Tea, introduction, 7. 59 5 tax in 
Townshend Acts, 10. 35 ; tax 
retained on principle, 71, 73, 915 
scheme to enforce tax, 97-99 5 
action in the colonies, 99, 1085 
reception and destruction of, in 
Boston, 100-1105 effect in Eng- 
land, no ; attempt to repeal tax, 
112; tax repealed, 1 1 . 8 . 
Tecpanecas, Mexican tribe, 3. 13. 
Telegraph, influence on the Union, 

12. 71- 

Temple, Sir Thomas, English grant 

of Acadia, Q. 96. 
Tennent, Gilbert, revivalist, 9. 227. 
Tennessee, beginnings, II. 12.3 5 
effect of defeat of Cherokees, 125. 
See also Franklin (state of). Fron- 
tier, Territory. 
Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), signifi- 
cance of name, 3. 1 1. See also 
Mexico City. 
Ternay, Chevalier de, French naval 
officer, brings troops, II. 244 } 
blockaded, 246. 
Terrarossa, Italy, claim as birthplace 

of Columbus, 2. 17- 
Territory beyond the Alleghanies, 
state claims, 12. 222-226 ; ces- 
sion of state claims to Northwest, 
226-230 ; Jefferson's plan for gov- 
ernment in 1784, 232-235 ; 



state of Franklin, 236-23! , 
stallation of national control con- 
fined to unsettled, 239 ; beginning 
of settlement in Northwest, 240 j 



53 



GENERAL INDEX 



Indian claims extinguished, 241 5 
Ordinance of 1787, 242-246 5 
question of free navigation of the 
Mississippi, 246-250 ; threats of 
secession, 249 ; plans to improve 
intercourse with the East, 251 5 
fear of, in Federal Convention, 
303. See also Frontier. 

Tessouat, Ottaw^a chief, and Cham- 
plain, 9. 84, 

Tezcatlipoca, Aztec god of darkness, 
rival of Quetzalcoatl, 3. 24 j hu- 
man sacrifice to, 27, 66. 

Tezcucans, Mexican tribe, i. 118, 
3. 13 J alliance with Cortes, 85. 

Thatch (Teach), Robert, pirate, 
exploits, II. 427-4295 death, 

431- 

Thayendanegea. See Brant. 

Theatre, in Williamsburg, 5. 282 5 
in Charleston, 387 5 beginnings in 
Philadelphia, 8. 378. 

Theocracy. See Religion. 

Thomas, John, American general, at 
siege of Boston, 10. 177. 

Thompson, William, Puritan minis- 
ter in Virginia, 4. 355-357- 

Thorbrand Snorrason, killed by In- 
dians in Vinland, I. 219, 235. 

Thorfinn Karlsefni, marries Gudrid, 
I. 192; unsuccessful colony in 
Vinland, 192-194 5 descendants, 
193 n. 

Thorhall Gamlason, called the Vin- 
lander, i. 190 n., 235 n. ; goes 
to Vinland, 192 n. 

Thorir, Arctic voyage, l. 244 n. 

Thorkell Gellison, authority on 
Greenland and Vinland, i. 237. 

Thorne, Robert, Bristol merchant, 
on Cabot's landfall, 2. 225 ; in- 
terest in Rut's voyage, 232. 

Thorpe, George, sent as rector of 
proposed college in Virginia, 4. 
275. _ 

Thorstein Ericsson, unsuccessful voy- 
age to Vinland, I. 191. 

Thorvald Ericsson, in Vinland, i. 
191. 



Thorvard, evil deeds in Vinland, i. 
194-196. 

Throgmorton, John, settlement in 
New Netherland, 7. 211. 

Thule, use of term by ancient writ- 
ers, I. 351 ; Columbus on, 2.. 

57, 59- 

Thurlow, Lord, in North ministry, 
10. 87 ; on coercion of colonies, 
1 1 5 5 in Rockingham ministry, 
12. 6. 

Ticonderoga, N. Y., meaning of 
name, g. 68 ; site of Champlain's 
first Indian battle, 68, 70 ; Lou- 
doun plans to attack, 307 ; Aber- 
crombie's futile attack, 318-325 ; 
strategic value, 327, 10. 152. j 
Amherst's expedition against, g. 
347 5 evacuated by the French, 
3485 captured by Americans, 10. 
153-155 V Arnold retreats to, 
295; Burgoyne captures, 315- 

319- 
Tituba, servant of Parris, and the 
Salem witchcraft, g. 159, 162, 

163, 179, 19^- 

Tlacatecuhtii^ Aztec military execu- 
tive, I. 126. See also Chief-of- 
men. 

Tlacopans, Mexican tribe, I. 118, 

3- 14- 

Tlaloc, Mexican elemental deity, 3. 
21, 22. 

Tlascala, Mexican pueblo, I. 106, 
108,3. ^7 5 fight with Cortes, 
43-47 ; alliance with Cortes, 47, 
84. 

Tobacco, first mention, i. 118,4. 
205 5 diffusion, 205 ; introduction 
into Europe and opposition, 206— 
208 ; influence on Virginia society, 
208, 271, 5. 202-2055 Charles I. 
attempts to monopolize the trade, 
4. 283-285 5 low price, 5. 3 5 
as currency, 25, 59, 131, 190, 
251-2545 effect of the Naviga- 
tion Acts, 59, 129, 202, 254} 
attempts to check production, 130, 
178, 2045 Plant-cutters' Riot, 



GENERAL INDEX 



^30, 132 ; proprietary duty in 
Maryland, 1 54 5 wheat rivals it in 
Maryland, 314 ; cultivation in 
New Netherland, 7. 188. 
Todkill, Anas, Virginia colonist, on 
early conditions, 4. 137, 142, 

'59- 

Toledo, Francisco de, viceroy of 
Peru, and the Chirihuanas, 3. 
158. 

Toleration. &e Religion. 

Tollan (Tula), Mexico, and the 
Toltecs, 3. 6 ; early Aztec settle- 
ment, 9. 

Toltecs, traditional people of Mexico, 

3- 5-"- 

Tonty, Henri de, La Salle's lieuten- 
ant, at Fort Crevecceur, 3. 365, 
9. 127 5 rejoins La Salle, 3. 367, 
g. 1305 at Fort St. Louis, 3. 
368. 

Tories, Virginia clergy usually, 5. 
307, 378, 12. 94; birth of party 
in Massachusetts, 6. 322, g. 
201 ; in New York, 8. 305. 
See also Loyalists. 

Toscanelli, Paolo del Pozzo dei, let- 
ters on westward route to the In- 
dies, 2. 25-35, 38 n.-4i n. 5 
sailing chart, 25, 28 n. ; death, 
33 n. ; and origin of westward 
route, 36 ; on size of earth and of 
Asia, 49 ; and Vespucius, 241 n. 

Town meetings. See Local self-gov- 
ernment. 

Towns, lacking in Virginia and 
North Carolina, 5. 245, 367 5 
attempts to force growth by legis- 
lation, 246. 

Townshend, Charles, first lord of 
trade, colonial knowledge and 
policy, 10. 175 chancellor of the 
exchequer, 33 ; character, 33, 
44 5 measures to tax colonies, 
34-36 5 responsible for the Revo- 
lution, 43 ; death, 44. 

Townshend, Thomas, in Shelburne 

ministry, 12. 19. 
Townshend Acts, lO. 34-36 ; real 



purpose, 36 ; resistance in the 
colonies, 54-59 5 partial repeal, 
71-73, 87. Ste also Tea. 

Township, origin, I. 112, 113 n. ; 
in New England, 5. 37, 43 ; 
and the South Carolina parish, 
378. See aha Local self-govern- 
ment. 

Tracy, Marquis de, military com- 
mander in Canada, g. 101. 

Trade, European, in 1000, I. 300 5 
routes between Europe and Asia, 
302 ; effect of Saracen conquest, 
310 ; importance of Constanti- 
nople, 3 1 1 5 effect of Crusades, 
316 ; rivalry of Venice and 
Genoa, 3165 European, at end 
of thirteenth century, 318; with 
Asia checked, 335, 3365 need 
of new route to Asia, 337 ; mod- 
ern" slave, 372, 3. 250, 4. 18, 

5. 221, 12. 87 ; Spanish regulation 
of Indian, 2. 1 50; Portuguese- 
East Indian, 191,7. 55; joint stock 
companies, 2. 220,4. 16, 7. 58 ; 
between the Netherlands and Eng- 
land, 4. 53, 7. 41 5 influence on 
English plans of colonization, 4. 
53 5 attempt of Charles I. to mo- 
nopolize tobacco, 283-285 ; Vir- 
ginia law against forestalling, 292— 
294 ; colonial rivalry, 5. 4 5 con- 
ditions of Virginia, 239-241, 246; 
Virginia country store, 248 5 pol- 
icy of restriction, 52, II. 6, 12. 
159-1665 illegal New England- 
North Carolina, 5. 328-331 } 
North Carolina, 366 5 South Caro- 
lina, 38 1, 4245 piratical, 404, 421- 
425, 8. 260 ; with the Indians, 

6. 254, II. 117; geographi- 
cal advantages of the mediaeval 
Netherlands, 7. 14 ; and religion, 
47, g. 221 5 Dutch, in the East 
Indies, 7. 57-60 ; English, in the 
East Indies, 61 5 East Indian, 
and Arctic explorations, 63 ; Mus- 
covv Company, 93 ; United New 
Netherland Company, 121, 124 j 



szz 



GENERAL INDEX 



monopoly of the Dutch West 
India Company, 129 5 patroon, 
in New Netherland, 156 ; be- 
tween New Netherland and New 
England, 187 • rivalry of England 
and the Netherlands, 288 ; New 
York, under Andros, 8. 525 New 
York in 1680, 105-107 ; Penn- 
sylvania, 378 ; non-importation 
agreements, 10. 56, 88, 130 ; 
Parliament closes American ports, 
132, 206; Congress opens them 
to the world, 206 5 cut off by the 
war, 11.30; coasting, ruined, 1 46 ; 
failure of a treaty with England, 
12. 31, 53 ; influence of the Re- 
volution on restricted, 161 5 Pitt's 
free-trade bill, 162 ; West Indian, 
162-164; America threatens re- 
prisals, 166-168 ; conflicting state 
measures, 1 68-1 71 ; attempt toes- 
tablish congressional control, 170 5 
interstate war, 1 71-175 ; treaties 
with Holland and Prussia, 1 84 ; 
Barbary depredations, 188-192 ; 
distress in Rhode Island and Mas- 
sachusetts, 204 ; Spanish treaty 
and the navigation of the Missis- 
sippi, 247-250 ; compromise on 
national control under the Consti- 
tution, 311-313, 316, 317; New 
England control under the Consti- 
tution feared, 312, 399, 401. 
See also Fur-trade, Navigation 
Laws, Travel. 

Transylvania. See Kentucky. 

Travel, colonial conditions, 5. 250, 
276 j conditions in 1783, 12. 71- 

73- 

Treason, extension to colonies of 
Henry VIII. 's statute, 10. 63, 
70, 116, 140, 141 ; loyalists 
hanged for, 3. 69 5 rarity in 
America, 82. See also Arnold, 
Lee (Charles). 

Treat, Robert, relieves Northfield in 
King Philip's War, 6. 277 5 in 
attack on Narragansetts, 283 ; 
governor of Connecticut, 335. 



Treaties, Tordesillas, 2. 148 
Utrecht, 5. 221, g. 233 ; Amer 
ica, 5. 413 ; Verdun, 7. 10 
Southampton, 138, 1445 Miin- 
ster, 283, 286 ; Hartford, 299 
Breda, 8. 19 ; Westminster, 
41 5 St. Germain-en-Laye, 9. 92 : 
Aix-la-Chapelle, 258 ; trade, with 
Holland and Prussia, 12. iJ 
with Morocco, 191. See also 
Peace of 1783. 

Trenton, N. J., Hessians at, 10. 
263 ; battle, 268-270 5 reception 
of Washington in 1789, 12. 
418. 

Tribe, growth from clan, I. 72 j 
structure of Indian, 85 ; govern- 
ment of Mexican, 1 24. 

Trinidad Island, discovery, 2. 184. 

Trinity Church, New York, founded, 
8. 302 5 lawsuits, 302. 

Trott, Nicholas, chief justice oi 
South Carolina, 5. 359. 

Truman, Thomas, murders Susque- 
hannock envoys, 5. 68-71. 

Trumbull, Jonathan, governor of 
Connecticut, on Howe's negotia- 
tions, 10. 2.39; *' Brother Jona- 
than," 239 n. 

Tryon, William, governor of North 
Carolina, defeats Regulators, 10. 
90 ; governor of New York, 90 j 
plot against Washington, 224 ; 
raids in Connecticut, 303, 11, 

133- 

Tucker, Josiah, doubts stability of 
United States, 12. 68. 

Tupac Amaru, last of the Incas, 3. 
246. 

Tupac Yupanqui, Inca, conquests, 3. 
127. 

Tupi-Guarani Indians, 3. 96. 

Turks, barbarians, I. 312 ; charac- 
ter of conquests, 313; crusade 
against, 313, 3155 effect of their 
conquest of Constantinople, 336. 

Turner, William, destroys the Nip- 
mucks, 6. 245. 

Tuscaroras, Huron- Iroquois Indians, 



534 



GENERAL INDEX 



I- 53i 5- 349 5 J"'" Iroquois con- 
federacy, I. 56, 5. 355, 8. 288 n.5 
war in North Carolina, 5. 350- 

355- 

Tuzulutlan, province in Central 
America, character, 3. 292 5 Las 
Casas's peaceful conquest, 293— 
300 J called Land of True Peace, 
300. 

Twelve Men, Board of, in New 
Netherland, 7. 209-211. 

Twiller, Wouter van, director-gen- 
eral of New Netherland, charac- 
ter, 7. 166-168, 182, 189-191 5 
and Eelkens, 168-170; and the 
English in Connecticut valley, 
173-181; land purchases, 188; 
charges against, 189, 191 j re- 
called, 192. 

Uncas, Mohegan chief, in Pequot 
War, 6. 1605 defeats Mianto- 
nomo, 205—209 ; disapproves of 
missionaries, 266. 

Underhill, John, an Antinomian, 6. 
143 5 in Pequot War, 160 ; in 
New Netherland, 7. 217; de- 
stroys an Algonquin stronghold, 
Z18; manifesto against Stuyve- 
sant, 305 ; confiscates Fort Good 
Hope, 307 ; later life, 307. 

Union, Iroquois confederation, i. 
86-91, 9. 46; Mexican confed- 
eration, I. 118-121; colonial 
education for, 5. 126, 199, 439- 
447, 6. 345-347, 8. 255, 
g. 278 5 Nicholson's plan, 5. 
1 5 1 ; first American Congress, 
441, 8. 228 ; Albany Congress 
and Plan, 5. 445, g. 279-281, 
10. 7-1 3 ; and liberty in Rome, 
6. 14, 18 ; preserved by Catholic 
church, 20-22 ; advance through 
representation, 25 ; Greek fed- 
erations, 26 ; Norman invasion 
strengthened nationality, 35 ; and 
liberty in the llnited States, 56 ; 
federal germs in Connecticut gov- 
ernment, 155; New England 



Confederacy a league, 191 ; of 
colonies desired by James II., 
3345 by William III., 343, 8. 
253 5 Penn's plan, 256 ; Brit- 
ish plan for colonial, 10. 5 ; kind 
desired by colonies, 6 ; Stamp Act 
Congress, 24-26 ; importance of 
committees of correspondence, 96 ; 
Franklin's plan in 1775, 186; 
Virginia instructs for a confedera- 
tion, 212; Lee's resolution for a 
confederation, 216 ; interstate jeal- 
ousies, 286, II, 37, 12. 73 ; 
political chaos during Revolution, 

10. 184, 290, II. 31, 237 ; 
Articles of Confederation, 11. 31, 
12. 111-120; sentiment for, 
weakens, 11. 56, 12. 65-68; 
independence essential to, 11. 
354; Washington urges a closer, 
12. 63 ; social changes favouring, 
105; sentiment for a distinct 
southern, 400. See also Conti- 
nental Congress, Federal Conven- 
tion, Local self-government. New 
England Confederacy, United 
States. 

Unitarianism as a gauge of liberalism, 
g. 212 ; beginnings, 12. 103. 

United New Netherland Company, 
monopoly, 7. 121 ; continued pro- 
sperity without monopoly, 124 j 
desires to colonize, 125. 

United States, real factor in estimating 
value of the discovery of America, 
4. 6, II-13 ; debt to Chatham, 

11. 21 ; critical period, 12. 65 ; 
disbelief in its stability, 68, 167, 
182 ; elements of success, 69; 
inventions that have influenced 
stability, 70 ; relation to the 
states, 107-109, 282-284, 318; 
supposed scheme for a monarchy, 
127; foreign contempt, 183; 
effect of cession of state claims to 
western territory, 230 ; govern- 
ment compared with Great Brit- 
ain, 343—355 ; conception of its 
government, 361 ; inauguration of 



535 



GENERAL INDEX 



the federal government, 414-417, 
419. See also Continental Con- 
gress, Federal Convention, Inde- 
pendence, Union. 

Usselincx, William, urges Dutch 
colonization, 7. 116} and New 
Sweden, 275. 

Utie, John, and Harvey, 4. 348, 
349- 

Valcour Island, Lake Champlain, 
battle, 10. 294. 

Valdivia, Pedro de, conquest of 
Chili, 3. 232. 

Valparaiso, Chili, founded, 3. 232. 

Van Berckel, E. F., magistrate of 
Amsterdam, and commercial treaty 
with United States, 11. 190. 

Vane, Henry, character, 6. 142 ; 
governor of Massachusetts, 142 ; 
Antinomian, 143 5 returns to Eng- 
land, 145 5 on religious liberty, 
235, 8. 124 

Varennes. See La Verendrye. 

Varnhagen, F. A. de, monographs 
on Vespucius, 2. 241 n. ; refutes 
charges against Vespucius, 397. 

Vassall, William, in Presbyterian 
cabal, 6. 213-215. 

Vaudreuil, Philippe de, governor of 
Canada, policy, g. 239, 241. 

Vaudreuil, Pierre Francois, Marquis 
de, governor of Canada, g. 282 ; 
and Montcalm, 305. 

Vaughan, William, project to cap- 
ture Louisburg, g. 250 ; occupies 
the grand battery at Louisburg, 
254. 

VaZjTristam, Portuguese navigator, 
at Madeira Islands, I. 370. 

Vela, Blasco Nunez, viceroy of Peru, 
and the New Laws, 3. 237 5 rebel- 
lion against, 238 5 killed, 238. 

Velasquez, Diego, governor of Cuba, 
3. 29 ; engages in slave-catching, 
30 5 and Cortes, 37, 38, 78. 

Venezuela, origin of name, 2. 262. 
Venice, instigates capture of Constan- 
tinople, 1 . 315 } trade rivalry with 



Genoa, 316, 327, 5. 402 j pres* 
tige imperilled, I. 336. 

Venn, Charles, on coercion of Bos- 
ton, 10. III. 

Ventadour, Duke of, viceroy of New 
France, g. 89. 

Vera Cruz, Mexico, founded, 3. 38. 

Veragua, Columbus on coast, 2. 
205 j attempted settlement, 206, 
207. 

Vergennes, Count de, on Bunker 
Hill, 10. 1 72 ; assists America 
secretly, 280 ; seeks Spanish aid 
for America, n. 161 ; hostility 
to American interests, 164, 12. 
20-25, ^7 ) fi''^^ peace demands, 
14 5 and the separate negotiations, 

39- 
Verhulst, William, director-general 

of New Netherland, 7. 139. 

Vermont, conflicting claims to, lO. 
136, 12. 180-1825 plays part in 
army intrigue, 10. 297, 298, 12. 
179; forms state government, 
179 5 attitude on Shays's Rebel- 
lion, 218. 

Verrazano, Giovanni da, voyage on 
coast of North America, 3. 324, 
7. 70-78, g. 9-12 ; early life, 7. 
69, g. 8 5 death, 7. 78, g. 12; 
and Aubert, 4. 

Verrazano Sea, origin, i, 326, 7. 
71,73, g. II 5 on maps, i. 326, 
356, 4- 72, 7- 72, 9. II 5 influ- 
ence, 4. 72, 7. 100, g. II, 24. 

Vespucci, Giovanni (Juan), as a 
navigator, 2. 243. 

Vespucius, Americus, different spell- 
ings of name, 2. 240 n. 5 birth 
and early years, 240 ; as an as- 
tronomer, 241 5 authorities, 241 n. ; 
as a cartographer, 242 5 character, 
243 ; in Spain, 243 ; connection 
with Berardi, 244, 309 5 relation 
with Columbus, 245, 408 ; let- 
ters to Medici and Soderini, 245— 
247; forged letters, 246 n., 
320 n. ; resume of his voyages, 
247-249 j marriage, 249 j pilot 



s:^^ 



GENERAL INDEX 



major, 250 ; death, 250 ; char- 
acter of letter to Soderini, 251- 
255, 406 5 capacity in earlier 
voyages, 252 j his lost book, 255- 
2575 Latin version of letter to 
Soderini, 257, 363-365 ; lost in- 
termediate French version, 257, 
363 5 original Italian text, 257- 
259, 362 5 important change in 
Latin text, 260-262 ; change in 
text leads to charge of attempting 
to supplant Columbus, 262, 387- 
395 ; refutation of charge, 263- 
271, 397, 389 ; popularity of let- 
ters, 270, 398 n. 

First voyage: start, 2. 271 ; 
landfall, 272, 311 ; on Yucatan 
coast, 272 5 experiences in Mex- 
ico, 273-277 ; on Florida coast, 
277 5 on Atlantic coast, 278 ; at 
the Bermudas, 280, 314 n. 5 
enslaves Indians, 280 5 final port 
on Atlantic coast, 281, 313 5 con- 
temporary allusions to, 282-293 5 
influence on La Cosa map, 293— 
297, 306 n. ; influence on Can- 
tino map, 297-299, 306 ; actu- 
ality, 305-307, 321 n. ; prob- 
able origin, 307-311 ; date of 
landfall, 311 n. ; why not fol- 
lowed up, 315-318; possible in- 
fluence on fourth voyage of Co- 
lumbus, 318. 

Second voyage : with Ojeda and 
La Cosa, 2.319 ; start, 319; land- 
fall, 319, 319 n. ; on coast of 
Brazil, 319-321 j on Pearl Coast, 
321. 

Third voyage : enters service 
of Portugal, 2. 325 ; start, 326 ; 
meets Cabral, 326 ; landfall in 
Brazil, 327 ; on coast of Brazil, 
327-330 5 leaves coast near La 
Plata River, 330 ; discovers South 
Georgia Island, 332 5 return to 
Lisbon, 332 ; importance, 333- 
335 ; letter to Medici calling his 
discoveries a New World, 336- 
338 j letter published under title 



Mundus NoTJus, 339-344 ; eariy 
cartographical application of tht 
term, 344-357 ; not considered 
a rival to Columbus, 358 ; this 
New World called America, 366- 
368 ; original application of name 
America, 371-382, 389 n. ; grad- 
ual extension of name to whole 
hemisphere, 382-386 ; over- 
shadows Columbus, 390. 

Other voyages : fourth, 2. 401- 
407 ; returns to service of Spain, 
407 ; fifth and sixth, 410, 41 1 n. 

Vestry, in Virginia, 5. 41-43, 82, 
114-118; in South Carolina, 
.378. 

Vice-president, election and duties, 
.12. 335, 359. 

Vignau, Nicolas de, story of adven- 
tures, 9. 82 ; probable basis of 
truth, 83 ; sequel, 85. 

Vikings, derivation of name, I. 
175 n. ; exodus, 176; various 
destinations, 176 ; ship, 198- 
201 ; not pirates, 5. 397. 

Villegagnon, Nicholas de. Huguenot 
colony in Brazil, 3. 342, 9. 33. 

Villiers, Coulon de, at Fort Neces- 
sity, 9. 275. 

Vincennes, Ind., during the Revolu- 
tion, II. 128. 

Vinland, literature on, i. 180 n.— 
l82n. ; Leif Ericsson's discovery, 
189 ; named, 190, 191 n. ; Thor- 
vald Ericsson in, 191 ; Thorfinn 
Karlsefni's unsuccessful colony, 
192-194; expedition of Thorvard 
and Freydis, 194-196 ; narrative 
verisimilar, 196, 204-224, 245 j 
location, 208-213 5 character of 
records on, 229-234, 239 n. ; cor- 
roborative accounts, 234-245 ; 
narrative based on a historical saga, 
246 ; absurd speculations, 247- 
250 ; no colony founded, 250— 
255 ; Horsford's views, 255 n. j 
Bishop Eric's search, 258 ; other 
voyages, 258; forgotten, 292 j 
and Columbus, 2. 60-72, 96 n.^,^ 



537 



GENERAL INDEX 



104, 112 J earliest aasociation with 
America, 71, 3. 382. 

Viomenil, Baron de, at Yorktown, 
11. 340. 

Viracocha, Peruvian sky-god, Span- 
iards called sons of, 3. 214. 

Viracocha, Inca, conquests, 3. 125. 

Virgil, on the torrid zone, I. 354 n.j 
on shape of earth, 357, 358 n. 

Virginia, attempted Spanish settle- 
ment, 3. 321 j named, 4. 37; 
first charter, 71-73, 75-77 ; first 
expedition and its instructions, 84- 
93 } Spanish opposition, 90, 229 5 
voyage of first colonists, 107 5 first 
councillors, 108 ; settlement, 109 ; 
relations established with the Pow- 
hatans, no; first Indian attack, 
112; number and character of 
first settlers, 113, 141-143, 145 ; 
suffering during the first summer, 
1 1 3-1 1 5 ; internal troubles, 115- 
118, 132, 146, 178 ; arrival 
of the First Supply, 132; arrival 
of the Second Supply, 132 ; crown- 
ing of Powhatan, 133, 137 ; early 
value of the Indian alliance, 141 ; 
gold delusion, 143 ; early indus- 
tries, 144, 168 ; Smith's answer 
to the company's complaints, 147— 
151 ; changed relations with the 
Powliatans, 153, 166 ; supplies co- 
erced from the Indians, l 54-1 65 ; 
communism, 166, 196; Smith's 
rule, 167; second charter, 169- 
171 ; autocratic local government, 
171 ; Lord Delaware first gov- 
ernor, 1 72 ; arrival of the Third 
Supply, 177 ; anarchy and famine, 
179— 181 ; colony abandoned, but 
saved by Delaware's arrival, 181 — 
183 ; debt to Smith, 185-187 ; 
sources of weakness, 188; recov- 
ery under Delaware's personal 
administration, 1 89-1 91 ; need 
of craftsmen, 191 ; Dale's laws, 
194 ; communism abolished, 197 ; 
outgrows Jamestown, 197 ; begin- 
ning and effect of tobacco culture, 



208, 227, 271, 5. 202-205, 
244, 251-254; third charter, 4. 



209 ; Argair 



lie, 21 



Yeardley governor, 218, 284; 
population at various periods, 219, 
297, 5. 7, 27, 222; establishment 
of representation, 4. 219—221 ; 
first negro slaves, 221 ; importa- 
tion of marriageable women, 222 ; 
Indian massacres, 223, 357 ; re- 
view of the founding, 225-228 ; 
royal province, 258 ; extent in 
1624, 262-265 ; influence of the 
rivers, 263, 5. 239 ; legislature, 

4. 265-268, 285-288, 5. 82 n. 5 
conditions in 1624, 4. 268-275 > 
James I.'s intentions, 278 ; effect 
of overthrow of the company, 
279-283 ; relations with Charles 
I., 283-285, 294; early popular 
legislation, 4. 288-294; "king- 
dom," 294, 5. 25 ; governors 
from Yeardley to Berkeley, 4. 
295-297 ; reception of Baltimore, 
308-310 ; relations with Mary- 
land, 335, 337-341, 345, 373, 

5. 152; Harvey deposed, 4. 343- 
350 ; Puritans in, 353-357, 3^5 J 
loyalty to Charles II., 366, 5. 
24 ; submits to the Common- 
wealth, 4. 367-369, 5. 21-23 j 
conditions in 1649, 1-7; geo- 
graphical names, 7-9 ; extent and 
influence of the Cavalier immigra- 
tion, 18-21, 27-29, 33, 112- 
118; Berkeley elected governor, 
23 ; resumption of royal control, 
25 ; seal, 26 ; reasons for social 
difference from New England, 34 ; 
local government, 40-51, 114— 
118 ; prolific in leaders, 51 ; influ- 
ence of the Navigation Acts, 54— 
60, 129, 202 ; discontent, 60 j 
Arlington-Culpeper grant, 61-63 ; 
corruption in the government, 65 j 
Long Assembly, 66 ; Indian war, 
67-74, 76, 83-86, 88, 95 ; be- 
ginning of Bacon's Rebellion, 76- 
81, 87-89 J Bacon's Laws, 8 1- 



538 



GENERAL INDEX 



83 ; Bacon's plans and manifesto, 
89—100, 1245 Bacon's capture 
and destruction of Jamestown, 
101-103; his reprisals on the 
aristocrats, 103-105 ; his death, 

106 ; collapse of the rebellion, 

107 ; royal commissioners in, 
107 ; Berkeley's barbarity, 107- 
1 1 o 5 his removal, 1 1 o 5 causes 
and aspects of the rebellion, 1 1 1 — 
125; education for union, 126, 
6. 345 ; assembly and governor, 
5. 127, 132-134, 433-439, 
442-445 5 Culpeper governor, 
128, 131 5 Plant-cutters' Riot, 
129-13 1 5 Howard governor, 
132, 134; Nicholson's adminis- 
trations, 134, 140-1445 William 
and Mary College, 135-137, 144- 
150 J Andros deputy-governor, 
137 5 Andros and Blair, 138, 139 5 
"Williamsburg the capital, 141 ; 
white servitude, 205-220, 289 ; 
slavery, 220-237, 12. 85-87, 
313 ; classes, 5. 237; nationality 
of tidewater settlers, 237-239 5 
exports and imports, 240 5 indus- 
tries, 241—244 ; absence of town 
life, 245-248 5 typical country 
store, 248 ; travel, 250, 276 ; 
extravagance and hospitality, 254- 
256; plantation life, 256-274; 
food and drink, 266—268 5 dress, 
274 ; weddings and funerals, 2755 
recreations, 276-283 ; culture and 
education, 283—297 ; literature, 
297-302 ; science, 302, medi- 
cine, 303—305 ; religion, 305— 
308, 12. 93-98 ; crime and pun- 
ishment, 5. 308—310 ; lawyers 
and law-abiding, 311; aid in sup- 
pressing the Tuscaroras, 353, 
442—445 5 Spotswood governor, 
432, 434 ; early resistance of a 
parliamentary tax, 435—438 ; not 
represented in Leisler's congress, 
441 5 early attempts to cross the 
Blue Ridge, 448 5 Spotswood's 
expedition, 449-454 ; Spotswood 



and Blair, 454 5 Goocti's and 
Dinwiddle's administrations, 455 j 
influence of the Scotch-Irish im- 
migration, 461-463, 465 ; first 
contact with the French settle- 
ments, 465-467 ; early loose ap- 
plication of name, 6. 90 ; disas- 
trous attempt of Puritan colony, 
95 ; assembly impedes Dinwid- 
dle's war measures, g. 272, 277 ; 
troops in Braddock's expedition, 
287 ; troops for campaign of 
1759, 343 ; Parsons' Cause, 10. 
21—23 5 Stamp Act resolutions, 
23 ; resolutions of 1769, 75 ; 
attempt to cajole, 75 5 estab- 
lishes intercolonial committees of 
correspondence, 95 5 Dunmore 
attempts to enlist slaves, 210 ; 
burning of Norfolk, 211; in- 
structs delegates to propose inde- 
pendence, 2125 new government, 
213 5 interest in the frontier, 11. 
117; conquest and claim to 
western territory, 128, 12. 21, 
225 ; British marauding expedi- 
tion, II. 132; Arnold's expedi- 
tion, 301, 323 ; campaign of La- 
fayette and Cornwallis, 323—328 ; 
Yorktown campaign, 330-342 5 
paper money, 12. 202 ; cedes 
northwestern claims, 229, 231 j 
why Kentucky was not ceded, 
239 ; sentiment for a separate 
southern confederation, 400 5 con- 
test over ratifying the Constitution, 
401—404 5 importance of its rat- 
ification, 405. See also Colonies, 
London Company. 

Virginia Company. See London 
Company. 

Voltaire, on the Crusades, 
on English people, 5 
Pennsylvania, 8. 115, 
influence, 10. 280. 

Voyages, Madoc's legendary, i. 49 j 
Chinese, to Fusang, 171 ; legend- 
ary Irish, 172 ; legendary Japa- 
nese, 173 ; Jean Cousin's, 173 | 

539 



■ 3i6n. ; 

17 5 on 

186 n. ; 



GENERAL INDEX 



Gunnbjorn's, to Greenland, i8i ; 
Eric the Red's, to Greenland, 
182 ; Leif Ericsson's, to Vinland, 
188— 191 ; of other Northmen to 
Vinland, 191-196, 238, 258 ; of 
Northmen to Baffin's Bay, 198 ; 
Thorir's Arctic, 244 n. 5 Zeno, 
263-267 ; to Estotiland and Dro- 
gio, 281-285 5 unrecorded pre- 
Columbian, 291 J barrenness of 
pre-Columbian, 292-296 ; first 
European, around Indo - China, 
326 ; ancient, on African coast, 
342-348 ; physical obstacles to 
ocean, 359-363 ; to the Azores, 
369 } Portuguese, on African 
coast, 370-375, 381-383 5 Co- 
lumbus's first, 2. 103-126 ; Co- 
lumbus's second, 153-155, 158- 
169, 176} Columbus's third, 
180-1895 Gama's, 191 ; Co- 
lumbus's fourth, 200-208 ; John 
Jay's search for island of Brazil, 
215 ; Cabots', 217-231, 4. 135 
Rut's, 3. 231 ; Cortereals', 234; 
northern and southern compared, 
238 ; Vespucius's first, 247, 271- 
280; second, 248, 319-321 ; 
third, 248, 326-333; fourth, 
249, 401-407 ; Ocampo's, 264 ; 
of Pinzon and Solis to Honduras, 
283-293, 310, 321 n. ; table of 
Spanish and Portuguese, 284 ; 
Pinzon's first, to South America, 

321 ; Lepe's, 322 5 of Nino and 
Guerra, 322 n. 5 of Bastidas, 

322 n. 5 Cabral's, 323 5 casual 
sequence of, from Columbus to 
Magellan, 399—401 ; of Jaques, 
401 5 Coelho's, 401-406 5 Ves- 
pucius's fifth and sixth, with La 
Cosa, 410 ; of Pinzon and Solis 
to South America, 412 5 Solis' s 
last, 413 ; Portuguese, in East 
Indies, 418 ; Magellan's, 428- 
449 ; Cordova's, 3. 30-33 5 Gri- 
jalva's, 34 ; Cortes' s, 37 ; Espi- 
nosa's, 202 ; Gonzalez's, 204 ; 
Ponce de Leon's, 315 j Pineda's, 



3165 Ayllon's, 321 ; Gomez's, 
322, 7. 79 5 Verrazano's, 3. 324, 
7. 70-77, 9. 9-1 1 , Cartier's, 3. 
325, 9- 13-24, 31 ; Drake's, 3. 
377, 4. 30-32 ; Frobisher's, 3. 
378 ; Davis's, 378 ; Barentz's, 
378 ; Hudson's, 379, 7. 96-109 5 
Baffin's, 3. 381 5 Bering's, 384; 
of Gilbert and Raleigh, 4. 33 ; of 
Amidas and Barlow, 37 5 of Cav- 
endish, 39 ; Gosnold's, 65, 6. 91 ; 
Pring's, 4. 65 ; Bartholomew 
Gilbert's, 65 ; Weymouth's, 65, 
6. 91 ; Arctic, 7. 63, 96, 100 5 
Antarctic, 65 5 alleged, of Aubert 
and Denys, 68, 9. 4-6 ; Alle- 
fonsce's, 7. 79, 9. 24-29; 
Roche's, 35 ; Champlain's, 42, 
52—55. See also Expeditions. 
Vries, David Pieters de, at Zwaan- 
endael, 7. 160 ; and Eelkens, 
1 69 ; settlement on Staten Isl- 
and, 199 ; Vriesendael, 208 ; 
heads the Twelve Men, 209 ; 
and the Indians, 213 — 216; 
leaves for HolLnd, 217; and 
Printz, 280. 

Wabenaki Indians, i. 52. See also 
Abenaki. 

Wadsworth, Joseph, hides Connec- 
ticut's charter, 6. 335 j and 
Fletcher, 8. 254. 

Wadsworth, Samuel, in King Phil- 
ip's War, 6. 290 ; ambushed 
and killed, 294. 

Wafer, Lionel, buccaneer, 5. 418, 

Waldenses, emigration to America, 
5. 238, 8. 397. 

Waldseemiiller, Martin (Hylaco- 
mylus). Tabula Terre No've, 2. 
299-301, 371 ; at Saint-Die, 
362 ; plan for a Ptolemy, 363 ; 
Cosmographie Introduction 364, 
365 ; names the New World 
America, 366-368 ; publishes the 
Ptolemy, 370; extent of his ap- 
plication of name America, 371- 
374. 



540 



GENERAL INDEX 



Walker, Sir Hovenden, fruitless at- 
tempt against Canada, 8. 283, 
Wall Street, New York City, origin, 

7. 301. 
Walloons, meaning of the word, 7. 

1365 in New Netherland, 136, 

8. 397- . 
Walpole, Sir Robert, British prime 

minister, colonial policy, 10. 55 
principles of control, 45. 

Wampum, as currency, 6. 318, 7. 
202 5 Long Island the chief source, 
203. 

Ward, Artemas, commander of 
American army before Boston, 10. 
160. 

Warfare, Indian, 1. 58-61, 219- 
221, g. 283 ; maritime, in six- 
teenth century, 5. 400-403 ; part 
played in nation-making, 6. 11, 
24—26 j truculence of war with 
savages, 162, 288 ; increased hu- 
manity, 286-288, II. 136 n. ; 
character of border, g. 240 5 
former popularity of convergent 
movements, 343, 10. 195, 308, 
311 ; Massachusetts militia famil- 
iar with, 10. 129 ; change in 
mode, 1 70 ; strategic value of the 
capital, 355 ; value of flanking 
movements, 367, 368. See also 
Neutrality. 

Warner, Augustine, suffers at Ba- 
con's hands, 5. 104; speaker of 
the House of Burgesses, 1 1 7. 

Warner, Seth, captures Crown Point, 
10. 154; at Hubbardton, 317. 

Warren, Joseph, character, 10. 126 ; 
takes lead in preparing for war, 
126, 129 ; drafts Suffolk County 
Resolves, 127 ; address at Boston 
Massacre commemoration, 1395 
president of Massachusetts provin- 
cial congress, 1605 volunteers at 
Bunker Hill, 164; killed there, 
168. 

Warren, Peter, and the attack on 
Louisburg, g. 252, 256. 

Warwick, Earl of, leads faction in 



London Company, 4. 215, 217, 
243 5 head of Board of Commis- 
sioners, 6. 190. 

Warwick, R. I., Gorton's settle- 
ment, 6. 212. See also Shaw- 
omet. 

Washington, Augustine, education, 
5, 288, 290. 

Washington, George, on Dighton 
rock inscription, i. 247 n. ; ped'- 
gree, 4. 82, 5. 29-32 ; life at 
Mount Vernon, 273 5 diversions, 
278 ; education, 288 5 last illness, 
304 ; and Fairfax, 464 5 mission 
to the French in Ohio valley, 
467, g. 270, 271 ; driven from 
site of Fort Duquesne, 272 5 ad- 
vance against Fort Duquesne, 
2735 surprises Jumonville, 274; 
question of perfidy, 274 ; at Fort 
Necessity, 275 5 surrender and re- 
treat, 276 ; at Braddock's defeat, 
291, 292; with Forbes, 337. 

During the Revolution : slow 
growth of desire for independence, 
10. 64 5 drafts resolutions on non- 
importation, 76 ; offers to raise 
troops to relieve Boston, 122 ; in 
Congress, 130, 155; appointed 
commander-in-chief of American 
army, 157; character, military 
reputation, and influence, 157- 
159, 240, 247, 277, 359, 375, 
379, II- 56, 398, 12. 64; 
accepts, 10. 1595 "" Bunker 
Hill, 172 ; takes command, 173 ; 
task of army organization, 182— 
184, 187, 199, 283-289, II. 
31-33, 241 ; compels British to 
evacuate Boston, 10. 200-202 5 
moves army to New York, 222 5 
preparation to defend New Yoik 
City, 223, 240-242 ; plot against, 
224 5 repulses Howe's unofficial 
negotiations, 237 ; retreat from 
Long Island, 246-248 5 evacuates 
New York City, 251 5 abandons 
Manhattan Island, 2545 orders 
respecting Fort Washington dis* 



GENERAL INDEX 



obeyed, 255—258 5 and Greene, 
259, II. 300 ; Lee refuses to re- 
inforce, 10. 259, 261 5 Lee in- 
trigues against, 262, 265 j retreat 
across New Jersey, 262 ; attack 
on Trenton, 268—270 5 eludes 
Cornwallis, 271-273 ; regains 
New Jersey, 274 ; results of New 
Jersey campaign, 275 5 counters 
Howe's allegiance proclamation, 
276 5 Cornwallis on, 278 j raises 
money for his troops, 286 ; dic- 
tatorial powers, 289, 371 j con- 
fidence in Arnold, 296, II. 
260 5 threatens reprisals for Lee, 
10. 351 ; foils Howe's plan to 
cross New Jersey, 358 ; uncer- 
tain of Howe's movements, 360, 
362 ; offers battle at Brandy wine, 
366 ; skilful manoeuvres after 
Brandywine, 371 5 plan of attack 
at Germantown, 373, 374-376 j 
on Valley Forge, 11. 345 rebukes 
Gates, 39 5 unfavourably con- 
trasted with Gates, 40 ; Conway 
Cabal against, 40-55 ; forged let- 
ters, 50 5 pursues Clinton, 69 5 
plans battle of Monmouth, 72- 
74 5 and Lee at Monmouth, 76, 
77 n. ; correspondence with Lee, 
81 5 Lee's Parthian shot, 875 on 
employment of Indians, 138 n. ; 
on arming negroes, 207 ; on paper 
money, 239 ; levies contributions, 
240 5 and Arnold's treason, 269— 
273 5 on justice of Andre's con- 
demnation, 275 ; and the attempt 
to secure Arnold, 277 n.5 sup- 
presses mutiny, 29 1 5 conference 
with Rochambeau on combined 
attack, 328 ; Yorktown com- 
paign, 330—342 ; returns to the 
Hudson, 12. 60 ; farewell to his 
officers, 61 5 resigns his command, 
62 5 and the half-pay measures, 
126, 132 ; scheme to make him 
king, 1275 and the Nevvburgh 
addrwsss, 130-1325 president of 
the Cincinnati, 132. 



After the Revolution : in retire*^ 
ment, 12. 62 ; circular letter on 
the needs of the country, 64 ; on 
need of a stronger union, 118, 
192 ; belief in future greatness of 
United States, 250 ; interest in 
improvement of intercourse with 
the West, 251-253 ; suggests an 
interstate commission, 253 ; mem- 
ber of the Federal Convention, 
261 5 president of the convention, 
271 5 appeal to the convention, 
2755 urges ratification of the Con- 
stitution, 394; elected president, 
4155 progress to New York, 
417-419 5 inauguration, 419. 

Washington, Henry, royalist com- 
mander at Worcester, 5. 30, 
464. 

Washington, John, great-grandfather 
of George, emigration to Virginia, 
5. 30, 68 ; and the Susquehan- 
nock envoys, 69-71, 80 n. ; suf- 
fers at Bacon's hands, 104. 

Washington, Lawrence, brother of 
John, emigration to America, 5. 
69. 

Washington, Lawrence, of Sulgrave, 
ancestor of George, 4. 82, 5. 29. 

Washington, Lawrence, brother of 
George, education, 5. 28S, 290; 
in Cartagena expedition, 455 n. 

Washington, Martha, life at Mount 
Vernon, 5. 273. 

Washington, William, American 
cavalry colonel, with southern 
army, 1 1. 302, 303 5 at Cowpens, 
305, 306 ; at Guilford, 310, 

311. 

Watauga River, Tenn., battle, 1 1. 
124, 125. 

Watertown, Mass., demands civil 
rights, 6. 127, 151 ; emigration 
to Connecticut, 154. 

Watson, Elkanah, journey, 5. 251. 

Watson, George, mandamus coun- 
cillor, resigns, 10. 125. 

Watts, Stephen, loyalist major at 



Oriskany, 10. 338. 



542 



GENERAL INDEX 



Waxhaws, N. C, battle, ii. 216. 

Wayne, Anthony, at Brandywine, 
10. 366, 370; defeated by Grey, 
372; at Germantovvn, 377; 
"Mad Anthony," 11. 1345 
storms Stony Point, 134-136; 
and his mutinous troops, 289 ; in 
Georgia, 348. 

Webb, Daniel, with Loudoun, 9. 
306 ; tardy reinforcement for 
Oswego, 308 ; at Fort Edward, 
312. 

Webster, Daniel, on Ordinance of 
1787, 12. 244. 

Webster, James, British colonel, at 
Camden, 11. 231. 

Webster, Pelatiah, on evils of paper 
money, ll. 237—239. 

Weems, Mason, question of his or- 
dination, 12. 98 j as an author, 

99 n- 

Wentworth, John, royal governor 
of New Hampshire, popular, 10. 
184. 

Werowocomoco, Va., chief village 
of the Powhatans, 4. no. 

Wessagusset, Mass., settlement, 6. 
109. 

West, Francis, helps Smith coerce 
the Powhatans, 4. 155, 164; 
governor of Virginia, 295. 

West, John, acting governor of Vir- 
ginia, 4. 348. 

West, Joseph, governor of South 
Carolina, 5. 325, 335. _ 

West. See Frontier, Territory. 

West Indies, trade with Virginia, 5. 
246 ; chronic hostilities and buc- 
caneering in, 403-406, 421, 425— 
427 ; French conquests, II. 167 5 
British capture St. Eustatius, 1 94 ; 
British disasters, 346 ; Rodney's 
victory, 346, 12. 16} United 
States trade, 162-164. ^^^ ^^^° 
the islands by name. 

West Jersey. &f New Jersey. 

West Point, N. Y., American for- 
tifications, 10. 256, II. 133 ; im- 
portance, 259. See also Arnold. 



Westbrook, Thomas, expedition 
against Maine Indians, g. 243. 

Weston, Thomas, settlement at 
Wessagusset, 6. 109. 

Wetherstield, Conn., settlers from 
Massachusetts, 6. 152, 154; In- 
dian attack, 159. 

Weymouth, George, on New Eng- 
land coast, 4. 65, 6. 91 ; lauds 
New England, 91. 

Whale fishery, Hudson's voyage 
gives impulse to, 7. loi. 

Whalley, Edward, regicide, in New 
England, 6. 245-247. 

Wheat culture in Pennsylvania and 
Maryland, 5. 313, 

Wheelwright, John, ally of Anne 
Hutchinson, 6. 143. 

Whitaker, Rev. Alexander, apostle 
of Virginia, on Dale, 4. 195 j 
Puritan, 353 5 death, 354. 

Whitbourne, Richard, on Newfound- 
land, 4. 306. 

White, Andrew, Jesuit, in Mary- 
land, 4. 321, 360. 

White, John, plans Puritan refuge 
in America, 6. 113. 

White, John, governor of Raleigh's 
colony, 4. 41 5 returns to Eng- 
land, 41 5 attempts to succour the 
colony, 44—46. 

White Plains, N. Y. , American 
base, 10. 254, II. 88 ; battle, 
10. 255. 

" White trash." See Poor whites, 

Whitefield, George, revival in New 
England, g. 226 ; second visit to 
New England, 22g ; motto for 
Louisburg expedition, 252 ; in 
America, 12. loi. 

Wicker, Lambert, American naval 
oificer, 11. 147. 

Wilkinson, James, aid to Gates, 10. 
2645 tattles, II. 45 ; challenges 
Gates, 50. 

Willard, Samuel, pastor of Old South 
Church, 6. 337 5 head of Har- 
vard College, 337 n., g. 209 ; 
accused of witchcraft, 1 84 ; non- 



543 



GENERAL INDEX 



resident vice-president of Harvard, 
208. 

Willard, Simon, relieves Brookfield, 
6. 274. 

WilletC, Marinus, sortie from Fort 
Stanwix, lO. 341 ^ first hoists 
stars and stripes, 341. 

William III. of Netherlands and 
England, colonial policy, 5. 137, 
151, 188, 6. 340, 342-344, 8. 
2.08, 219, 253 ; proclaimed in 
the colonies, 5. 186, 187, 6. 
341, 8. 2195 character, 6. 342 ; 
birth, 7. 287 ; stadholder, 290 5 
landing in England, 8. 208 5 and 
Penn, 354, 363. 

William and Mary College, foundec', 
ii. 135-1375 Andros's hostilitj, 
1385 site, 141 5 growth, 1445 
Indian students, 144 5 first corr- 
mencement, 145 ; student lifi , 
145-148 ; a tradition, 148 j iri- 
fluence, 150, 295. 

Williams, James, partisan com- 
mander, II. 221 ; operations, 
235 ; at King's Mountain, 295, 
297 ; killed, 298. 

Williams, Roger, character, 6. 139 ; 
on religious liberty, 139, 203, 
224, 235, 356 5 political bearings 
of doctrines, 139, 140, 189; on 
Indian rights, 1405 exiled, 141 ; 
settles Providence, 141 ; prevents 
alliance of Pequots and Narragan- 
setts, 159 5 obtains charter for 
Rhode Island, 190 ; appeal against 
Massachusetts, 235 ; dislike of 
Quakers, 236. 

Williamsburg, Va., founded as the 
capital, 5. 141 ; conditions, 245, 
282. 

Williamson, Andrew, defeats Chero- 

kees, II. 124. 
Willoughby, Sir Hugh, voyage and 

death, 4. 16, 7. 63. 
Wilmington, N. C, size in 1776, 

5- 367- 
Wilson, James, opposes independ- 
ence, 10. 214 



of the Federal Convention, 12. 
270 ; on equal state representa- 
tion, 295 ; anti-federal derision, 
375 J in the Pennsylvania ratify- 
ing convention, 376. 

Wilson, John, bigotry, 6. 222, 
239. 

Windsor, Conn., Puritan fort, 6. 
149 j settlers from Massachusetts, 

152, 154- 
Wingfield, Edward Maria, in Lon- 
don Company, 4. 77 5 quarrel 
with Smith, 107, 115 5 coun- 
cillor in Virginia, 108; president, 
1 09 ; Discourse of f^ifghiia, 116; 
dissatisfaction with his rule, 116; 
deposed, 117; fined for defaming 
Smith, 117; returns to England, 
138. 
Winnebago Indians, I. 48, g. 99; 

mound-builders, I. 168. 
Winslow, Edward, Massachusetts 
agent in England, 6. 193, 215 ; 
defence of New England Con- 
federacy, 193 ; Netv England'' s 
Salamander disco'vered, 215. 
Winslow, Josiah, on treatment of 
Indians, 6. 253 ; leads attack on 
Narragansetts, 281. 
Winthrop, John, governor of Massa- 
chusetts, 6. 124, 145 5 character^ 
124, 125, 225 ; on Antinomian- 
ism, 144 j on limited suffrage, 
151 ; on parliamentary control 01 
colonies, 212, 213 j death, 225 5 
on witchcraft, 9. 145. 
Winthrop, John (younger), builds 
Saybrook fort, 6. 1 50, 7. 176; 
character, 6. 236, 248 ; deplores 
execution of Quakers, 239 n. 5 
governor of Connecticut, secures a 
charter, 248, 249, 7. 320 ; in 
New Netherland, 334. 
Wise, John, pastor of Ipswich, pun- 
ished for protesting Andros's tyr- 
anny, 6. 338 5 character, 338, 
339 5 ^Vindication of Ne-zv Eng- 
land Churches, 339. 
Witchcraft, condemnation for, in 



544 



GENERAL INDEX 



Normandy, g. 133 5 universal 
belief, 134.-137 j bibliography, 
135 n., 152 n. j rise of scepti- 
cism, 137 ; specimen English 
trial, 138-140 ; epidemic of con- 
demnations, 140-143, 205 5 papal 
bull against, 141 ; text-book, 
142 5 James I.'s treatise, 142 ; 
Witch Act in England, 143 5 
last trials, 143 ; comparatively few 
cases in America, 144 ; early 
trials in Massachusetts, 145—148 5 
the Goodwin case, 148, 152-155. 
See also Salem Village. 

Wolfe, James, arrives in America, 
g. 317 ; effects a landing at 
Louisburg, 330 5 credit for capture 
of Louisburg, 3325 sent against 
Quebec, 344; problems, 351 ; 
illness, 352 ; project to get above 
the city, 352 ; preparations, 354 j 
ascent to Plains of Abraham, 355 ; 
battle, 356 ; death, 357. 

WoUaston, Captain, settlement in 
Quincy, 6. no. 

Wolley, James, on New York cli- 
mate, 71. loi 5 on the clerical 
feud, 102, 

TVonder-ivorking Pro'vidence, epit- 
ome of Puritan philosophy, 6. 
305-307. 

Wooster, David, American general, 
at siege of Boston, 10. 177. 

Worcester, Mass., destroyed by In- 
dians, 6. 294 5 defies Regulating 
Act, 10. 125, 127. 

Wormeley, Ralph, library, 5. 283. 

Wright, Sir James, royal governor of 
Georgia, reinstated, II. 205. 

Writs of assistance, episode in Massa- 
chusetts, 10. 14 ; legalized, 36. 

Wyandots, remnant of Huron In- 
dians, I. 56 n. , g. 263 ; squaw 
council, I. 83 n. ; clans common 
with Iroquois, 88. 

Wyatt, Sir Francis, governor of Vir- 
ginia, 4. 283, 284, 297, 350. 

Wyclif, John, doctrines, 6. 50 ; 
tianslates and circulates Bible, 



50 ; security, 50. See sho Lot 
lards. 

Wyoming valley, Penn., history of 
settlement, 10. 105-107 j mas- 
sacre, 107-109; war on the 
Connecticut settlers, 12. 175— 
179. 

Wythe, George, professorship at Wil- 
liam and Mary, 5. 150 ; member 
of the Federal Convention, 12. 
271. 

Ximenes, Francisco, and Indian slav- 
ery, 3. 277. 

Xocotlan, Mexico, reception of Cor- 
tes, 3. 43. 

Yale, Elihu, endows Yale College, 
g. 219. 

Yale College, conservatism, g. 213, 
218 j founded, 218. 

Yamassee Indians, friendly with the 
English, 5. 356 ; war on South 
Carolina, 357, 390. 

Yates, Robert, member of the Fed- 
eral Convention, 12. 267 5 quits, 
301 ; opposes the Constitution, 
408. 

Yeamans, Sir John, establishes Clar- 
endon colony, 5. 324 ; governor 
of Carolina, brings first negro 
slaves, 325. 

Yeardley, Sir George, deputy gov- 
ernor of Virginia, 4. 202, 204 ; 
governor of Virginia and knighted, 
218, 283, 284 ; death, 295. 

Yonkers, N. Y., origin of the name, 
7. 246. 

York, James, Duke of, grant, 5. 
^66> 7- 33°> 8. 41 5 laws for 
New York, 3 ; grant to Carteret 
anri Berkeley, 12, 42 ; on the de- 
mand for representation in New 
York, 49-51 ; and the Jesuits, 
61 ; cedes the government of New 
Jersey, 113, 1 70; unpopularity, 
1 69 ; grants representation to New 
York, 197; becomes king, 199- 
See a/io James II. 



S4S 



GENERAL INDEX 



Yorktown, Va., Cornwallis at, n, 
328 ; elements in the campaign, 
328-334; Grasse defeats British 
fleet, 336; Cornwallis surrounded, 
336, 337; arrival of Washington's 
army, 337; Clinton's counter- 
stroke, 338 ; investment and sur- 
render, 340 ; Clinton's attempted 
relief, 341 ; credit of the cam- 
paign, 341 ; effect, 343, 344. 

Yucatan, Vespucius on coast, 2. 
272 ; Cordova's expedition, 3. 
32 ; Grijalva's expedition, 34. 

Zarco, Gonsalvez, at Madeira 
Islands, I. 370. 

Zenger, J. P., character of his 
newspaper, 8. 290 ; arrested and 
held on information for libel, 291 ; 
counsel disbarred, 292 ; Hamilton 
defends, 292 ; the alleged libel, 
293 ; question of evidence of truth 
of libel, 295 ; Hamilton's speech, 
296-299 ; acquittal, 299. 

Zeno, Antonio, brother of Nicolo, 
joins Nicolo in Faeroe Islands, i. 
264; voyage of discovery, 265, 
285 ; lands visited, 266 ; death, 
267 ; letters to his brother Carlo 
and other papers, 267 ; narrative 
based on remains of these docu- 
ments, 268 ; emendations in the 
map, 268—272 ; narrative de- 
nounced, 272 ; sets up no claim to 
discovery of America, 273 ; veri- 
similitude, 274-280, 290 ; com- 
pared with Bardsen's description, 



275 ; on St. Olaus monastery, 
276, 280 n. ; on Estotiland and 
Drogio, 281-287. 

Zeno, Carlo, brother of Nicolo, ser- 
vices to Venice, I. 263 ; letters 
from Antonio, 267. 

Zeno, Nicolo, called the Chevalier, 
I. 2,63 ; wrecked on Faeroe 
Islands, 263 ; aids Sinclair, 264; 
visits Greenland, 265 ; death, 
265. 

Zeno, Nicolo, the younger, tears up 
Zeno narrative, i. 267 ; pub- 
lishes remains and maps, 268 ; at- 
tempts emendations, 268-272 ; 
denounced, 272 ; veracity, 286, 
287, 290. 

Zones, ancient theory of the five, 
I- 35'^~356 5 disproved by Portu- 
guese voyages, 376 ; Columbus's, 
treatise, 2. 56 ; of settlement in 
United States, 4. 73-75. 

Zuni, Cushing at, i. 100 ; popula- 
tion, 104; pueblo, 106, 109; 
Coronado at, 106, 3. 338 ; and 
legend of the Seven Cities, 332 ; 
Fray Marcos's journey to, 333— 
337 ; tradition of Estevanico's 
visit, 337. 

Zufiigd, Don Pedro de, Spanish 
ambassador at London, reports on 
English colonizing plans, 4. 70, 
210, 229. 

Zunis, Pueblo Indians, culture sta- 
tus, I. 36 ; character, 3. 337 n. ; 
illustration of reasoning limited h\/ 
experience, 6. 264. 



THE END 



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